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SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG 
 
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Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY 
 
 By 
 
 EDITH ARMSTRONG TALBOT 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
 
 1904 
 

 •/^ 
 
 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Tw* Caples Received 
 
 JAN 29 1904 
 
 ^' 
 
 Copyright Entry 
 § «.^' XXo. No. 
 
 Copyright, 1904, by 
 
 Edith A. Talbot 
 
 Published, January, 1904 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This brief outline of my father's life, work and 
 character is written in the hope that it may be 
 read not only by those who knew him, but by those 
 to whom the name of Samuel Armstrong suggests 
 no personal memories. 
 
 The scenes amid which he moved in his early 
 life have already become unreal in the dimness of a 
 historic past; many of the problems with which 
 he struggled are solved ; even in the ten years which 
 have elapsed since his death such a change has 
 come over Negro affairs that their earlier aspects 
 are almost forgotten. To reanimate these bygone 
 conditions and difficulties which he daily con- 
 fronted, and more than all to show in the midst 
 of many intricate activities the man himself, an 
 embodiment of life and aspiration combating by 
 sheer determination all discouragement and hesi- 
 tancy — this is my aim. 
 
 This aim alone justifies a disregard of his especial 
 request that no biography of himself should be 
 written. He read many biographies. Some of 
 them he liked and received from them help and 
 encouragement, while others impressed him as 
 "pretty good stories" written by "kind friends" 
 to perpetuate agreeable personal memories. He 
 
 V 
 
vi. Preface 
 
 greatly feared that such treatment would be given 
 him when he was no longer able to defend himself; 
 to be canonized was a fate that he really dreaded. 
 Nevertheless, he felt the value of the simple and 
 sincere story of a useful life ; and had he thought that 
 the telling of his own life-story would strengthen a 
 single impulse for good or encourage a single 
 struggler, he would have cordially assented to the 
 telling of it. Remembering his preferences, I have 
 omitted such details of his personal life as satisfy 
 a merely curious interest. 
 
 I wish to express my thanks first of all to my 
 husband; to Doctor Talcott Williams, Professor 
 LeBaron R. Briggs, Colonel T. W. Higginson, Mr. 
 Robert C. Ogden, Mr. BHss Perry, General O. O. 
 Howard, Mr. Herbert Welsh, and Reverend H. B. 
 Frissell, for their kind and generous interest in 
 this book, as well as to those who have lent their 
 treasured letters for publication. 
 
 Edith Armstrong Talbot. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter 
 
 I Hawaiian Life. 1839-1860 . 
 
 II Williams College. 1860-1862 
 
 III Life in the Army. 1862-1865 
 
 IV Life in the Army — Continued . 
 
 V The Freedmen's Bureau. 1866-1 
 
 VI The Beginnings of Hampton 
 
 VII At Hampton. 1870-1890 
 
 VIII In the North. 1870-1890 
 
 IX The Negro and the South 
 
 X Work for the Indian . 
 
 XI Last Years. 1893 . 
 
 872 
 
 Pagb 
 
 3 
 
 41 
 62 
 96 
 
 133 
 154 
 181 
 218 
 
 257 
 27s 
 291 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Samuel Chapman Armstrong . . . Fnntistiect 
 
 Facing Page 
 
 Birthplace of Samuel Chapman Armstrong on the 
 
 Island of Maui, Hawaiian Islands . . 8 
 The entrance to Stone House at Honolulu . . 14 
 Family group — Samuel Chapman Armstrong at 
 
 the age of 18 . . . . . .22 
 
 Samuel Chapman Armstrong at the age of 20 . 40 
 Samuel Chapman Armstrong as Lieutenant-Colonel 
 
 of the Ninth United States Colored Troops 96 
 Samuel Chapman Armstrong — taken about the 
 
 time of his sojourn at the officers' hospital 
 
 at Hampton, Va. , . . . . .118 
 A group of friends at Hampton in Freedmen's 
 
 Bureau times — Armstrong in the center 
 Samuel Chapman Armstrong at the age of 28 
 Academic Hall — erected 1869 and destroyed by 
 
 fire November 9, 1879 .... 
 
 General Armstrong — 1880 ..... 
 Virginia Hall — erected 1872 
 Mansion House in 1872 — General Armstrong's 
 
 home — foundations of Virginia Hall to the 
 
 right 
 
 Mansion House after improvements in 1886 
 Medallion of Samuel Chapman Armstrong made in 
 
 1 90 1 by Theo. A. Ruccles-Kitson 
 Samuel Chapman Armstrong .... 
 
 y 
 
 132 
 
 
 154 
 
 
 172 
 
 ,/ 
 
 180 
 
 
 184 
 
 -' 
 
 196 
 
 /' 
 
 198 
 
 / 
 
 218 
 
 / 
 
 254 
 
 / 
 
PART I 
 
 SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG 
 
SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 Hawaiian Life. 1839-1860 
 
 The history of a man's childhood is the description of his 
 parents and environment. — Carlyle. 
 
 SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG was fortu- 
 nate in both parentage and environment. He 
 was born January 30, 1839, on the island of 
 Maui, Hawaiian Islands, and brought up amid the 
 soft airs and noble scenery of that beautiful tropical 
 archipelago. Maui contains one of the most striking 
 natural features of the group, the extinct crater of 
 Haleakala, which thrusts its head into the clouds 
 10,000 feet above the sea-level, and on the grassy 
 slopes of this mountain, overlooking the island and 
 the surrounding sea, was his birthplace and the home 
 of his parents, Richard and Clarissa Armstrong, mis- 
 sionaries to the Hawaiians. Although the family 
 remained in Maui but a year after his birth, he always 
 retained a peculiar fondness for it, returning to it 
 often as a boy for horseback rambles among its 
 forests and gorges. He gloried in its splendid peaks 
 and coasts ; and about Haleakala (the House of the 
 Sun) centered in later life his thoughts of rest and 
 inspiration. 
 
 3 
 
4 Samoel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 The Armstrongs were people of the pioneer type, 
 fitted to enter into unbroken fields and prepare 
 them for later f ruitf ulness ; full of strength ; able to 
 endure and to hand down their power of endurance 
 to their children. 
 
 The father came of Scotch-Irish parentage, and 
 was reared in central Pennsylvania, in that whole- 
 some farm life from which have sprung so many 
 men of power. Rather delicate in health, he was 
 regarded as predestined for the ministry, and when 
 of the proper age entered Princeton Theological Sem- 
 inary. While there he became convinced that his 
 work lay in the mission field, and spent his vacations 
 and spare time studying medicine in Philadelphia in 
 order to prepare himself more fully for this work. 
 On applying to the American Board of Commis- 
 sioners for Foreign Missions for a position in the 
 Hawaiian Islands, he was accepted by them and 
 prepared to assume his new duties at the earliest 
 opportunity. About this time — in March, 1830 — he 
 wrote home: 
 
 "Perhaps you may be somewhat surprised at the 
 course I have chosen, and will be ready to ask, 'Why 
 not preach among the destitute at home.'" In answer 
 to this I would say that the choice is not my own; it 
 appears to be marked out for me by Him whom I am 
 bound to serve forever. The American Board wish 
 to send out twenty missionaries in eighteen months. 
 Most likely I shall be one of them. Then farewell, 
 America, and farewell earthly enjoyments." 
 
Hawaiian Life* J839-J860 $ 
 
 The farewell to earthly enjoyments, however, 
 was preceded by a happy event which, with the 
 completion of medical and theological courses, 
 marked the last few months of his stay in America. 
 In September he was married to Clarissa Chapman, 
 of Blandford, Massachusetts. 
 
 Clarissa Chapman had been reared in the same 
 plain farm life to which he himself was accustomed, 
 and was endowed with a fine physique and many 
 practical aptitudes. She wrote of her own early 
 life: 
 
 "In those days women did their own housework, 
 and it was thought disgraceful to be lazy or untidy. 
 Daughters worked with their mothers and sons with 
 their fathers. The spinning of wool and flax and tow, 
 the knitting and weaving by the fire while one read 
 aloud, and the singing of sacred hymns, were the 
 pleasures. I learned to do all kinds of household work, 
 and also often assisted my father, who was crippled by 
 rheumatism, in the care of the cows and sheep — an 
 experience for which in my years of wandering I have 
 often had occasion to be deeply thankful." 
 
 But she had parents who saw in their daughter 
 possibilities of something more than routine farm 
 work, and who, in spite of the scoffing of neigh- 
 bours, sent her away to be educated. When she met 
 Richard Armstrong she had been graduated from 
 the Westfield (Massachusetts) Normal School, partly 
 through her own efforts, partly through the help 
 her parents were able to give her, and was holding 
 a position as teacher in a Pestalozzian Infant 
 
6 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 School in Brooklyn, New York, one of the earliest 
 of schools to introduce from Germany the educa- 
 tional ideas whose later developments found expres- 
 sion in the kindergarten. 
 
 She was looking f or^vard cheerfully to the unevent- 
 ful life of a teacher, when Richard Armstrong, 
 vivacious, impassioned, and demonstrative, a true 
 Irishman and her very antithesis, captured her 
 heart and persuaded her that the Divine call to 
 which he had listened was addressed to her also. 
 Neither dreamed that the future held worldly 
 success and influence for them; it was the love of 
 God and a desire for the coming of His kingdom 
 that alone gave them courage as they set sail west- 
 ward on board the brig Thaddeiis on a dark Novem- 
 ber day in 1831. Mutiny on board the ship, and, 
 owing to head winds and consequent delay, a lack 
 of provisions, made the voyage a severe tax on the 
 endurance of the young bride and groom; the only 
 pleasant incident recorded by Mrs. Armstrong in 
 her journal of this voyage is the stop for repairs at 
 Rio Janeiro. Of this she wrote : 
 
 "How delightful, it was! The green grass, the fresh 
 fruits ! It was indeed paradise ; but the trail of the 
 serpent was there. On an open space I saw a long 
 trail of black men, miserably clad, chained together, 
 while beside them were others with great bags of coffee 
 on their heads, chanting a mournful lay. From that 
 day my sympathies went out to the poor slaves every- 
 where, but little did I think I should live to rear a son 
 
Hawaiian Life. J 839- J 860 7 
 
 who should lead the freedmen to victory in the great 
 contest which should come in future years." 
 
 At last Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong reached the port 
 of Honolulu in safety and began their work of 
 preaching and teaching there. 
 
 At the end of a year, in which a daughter was 
 born to them, they were sent on a dangerous mis- 
 sion to the Marquesas Islands, inhabited by canni- 
 bals, where they lived a year in friendliest relation 
 to these fierce folk, and succeeded in holding in 
 check their cannibal habits. Here their second 
 child, who lived but a short time, was born. That 
 husband and wife were made of hardy stuff is shown 
 by the fact that Mr. Armstrong, when compelled 
 to return to Honolulu for a short time, left his wife, 
 infant son,* and little daughter in charge of a 
 cannibal chief, who was, as Mrs. Armstrong noted 
 in a letter, "indescribably horrible in appearance," 
 but who guarded them in safety for weeks by lying 
 in front of their tent every night. 
 
 Owing to its peculiar difficulties they were unable 
 to make permanent impressions at this post, and 
 foreseeing reversion to cannibal habits, were recalled 
 to Honolulu, only to be sent away in a few days to 
 the island of Maui, a distance of three days' joiimey 
 by water from Honolulu. 
 
 Here was a more promising field for labour. 
 Maui was a thickly settled, fertile district, inhabited 
 
 *Bom while in the Marquesas Islands, and named by the 
 parents after their ferocious friend, Hapi. 
 
8 Samuel Chapman Armstrong: 
 
 by a gentle, willing people who flocked gladly to 
 listen to their new teacher. Here Richard Armstrong 
 remained for seven years, and here his peculiar 
 administrative powers found full play. Besides 
 the duties of his pastorate, he assumed the medical 
 oversight of his flock of 25,000 natives and the 
 organization and superintendence of schools for 
 1,700 children. He saw the need of steady indus- 
 trial occupation for the natives, and it was through 
 him that the first sawmills and sugar plantations 
 on the island of Maui were started. He foresaw 
 the need of diversified crops, and instructed the 
 natives in the first principles of tilling the land, which 
 had been heretofore untouched by them, since their 
 simple desires were satisfied with its natural fruits. 
 His son Samuel writes later of this time : 
 
 "[My father] used to tell us of the two churches 
 that he built here, one over each [missionary] station, 
 each to hold 1,500 people. He planned and super- 
 intended the whole work without any carpenter. The 
 timbers of the roof were hewn far up on the mountains, 
 brought down on the backs of natives, and placed on 
 walls of broken stone laid in mortar made from coral 
 brought up from the sea by native divers. Once, 
 when a storm destroyed the work of months, the people, 
 led by their chief, went wilHngly to the mountains and 
 began again. Although my father nearly broke down 
 here, yet afterward, when in the service of the Govern- 
 ment, he spoke of these as the happiest days of his life, 
 for his own hardships were forgotten in remembering 
 how gladly the people heard and, in their weakness, 
 followed like children." 
 
Hawaiian Life. J 839- J 860 9 
 
 While the Armstrongs were at Maui a strange 
 incident of history occurred, and one in which they 
 themselves bore no small part. For twenty years 
 the Hawaiian people had been listening patiently 
 to the teachings of Christian missionaries, many 
 becoming converts; but no impression was made 
 on the mass of the people till the years 1838 and 
 1839, when a series of waves of religious enthusiasm 
 swept the whole nation, as it were, into the Christian 
 fold in a day. Rulers, chiefs, and people resigned 
 their heathen beliefs, asking only to be taught the 
 law of Christ. 
 
 During the great revival Richard and Clarissa 
 Armstrong worked with all their might to secure 
 and intensify good results. If any were skeptical 
 of the value of this hothouse Christianity they were 
 not of them, and, like the Church at home, they 
 regarded the conversion of numbers as the proof of 
 missionary success. While the husband and father 
 addressed great meetings, the wife and mother, in 
 spite of the care of her five children and her 
 prospect of again becoming a mother, found time 
 and strength to gather the women about her 
 nightly and exhort them earnestly to a better life, 
 or to address large audiences when occasion de- 
 manded. Who shall say that her son was not 
 influenced by that time of spiritual upheaval in 
 the midst of which he was born? 
 
 Richard Armstrong's years at Maui had revealed 
 to the American Board of Commissioners for 
 
lo Samttel Chapman Armstrong: 
 
 Foreign Missions, who stood in loco parentis to the 
 missionaries in the field, his administrative skill, 
 and in 1840 he was moved from Maui to Honolulu 
 and installed in charge of the First Church, attended 
 by a large native congregation. 
 
 In order to understand the influences that sur- 
 rounded Samuel Armstrong's childhood, one must 
 glance at the history of the relation between the 
 plastic, pleasure-loving native and the stem New 
 England teacher, who would have about him equal 
 rights for all and a wholesome theory of sober and 
 righteous living, based, perhaps, rather on New 
 England than on tropical conditions. The period 
 of 1820 to 1840 had been throughout a period of 
 great change for the Hawaiian people. They had 
 gradually embraced Christianity, established courts 
 of justice, granted universal suffrage with slight 
 property qualifications, established a system of 
 schools throughout the islands so that in 1835 the 
 natives who could read and write were numbered 
 by thousands, and passed laws against drinking, 
 gambling. Sabbath-breaking, and social vice which 
 would have done credit to a New England village 
 and which were at times enforced. These changes, 
 which the Anglo-Saxon race has been himdreds of 
 years in making, were consummated in twenty by 
 the aid of the second and third Kamchamehas, 
 whose beneficent rule culminated in the year 1839 
 in the passage of a bill of rights which established 
 the right of the common people to hold land, a 
 
Hawaiian Life. J839-t860 ii 
 
 right heretofore the prerogative of kings and chiefs, 
 and the Hberty to worship how and where they 
 would. These rulers, themselves fairly attentive 
 hearers of the words of the missionaries, were the 
 first to embrace Christianity and to teach it to 
 their people. 
 
 But however zealous the chiefs and however 
 zealous the people, the improvement in manners 
 and morals among the natives did not keep pace 
 with the improvement in civil government and 
 forms of worship. The King, followed by chiefs 
 and people, wavered between the good influences 
 that in the main governed their public course and 
 the temptations of their sensual Polynesian natures. 
 In a land where fish, fruit and the taro could be had 
 with little toil, habits of industry were not indis- 
 pensable to happiness. Like the old-time Negroes, 
 they made their religion their chief business in life ; 
 like them, they delighted in "speaking in meeting," 
 and were born orators; but they found a strict 
 adherence to the Ten Commandments on week- 
 days rather burdensome. "The heathen saint is 
 about up to your New England sinner," as Arm- 
 strong remarked later. Where one-roomed huts, 
 with perhaps a curtain for the guest, were the 
 rule, no high standard of social morality could 
 be expected. 
 
 To complicate the problem of dealing justly and 
 effectively with this simple people, drink, vice, and 
 diseases heretofore unknown in Hawaii were being 
 
12 Samoel Chapman Atmstfong: 
 
 introduced by the crews of whaling vessels. More- 
 over, the beauty, fertility and commercial advan- 
 tages of these islands had from the first attracted 
 scheming men, sometimes working in the name of 
 a foreign government, sometimes independently, 
 but always for the furtherance of their own plans. 
 The governments of Great Britain and France saw 
 the advantage to the United States in the political 
 ascendency of the missionaries and strove to coim- 
 teract it at court and among the people, each 
 through its agents attempting by force to gain 
 possession of the islands. Many Americans also, 
 opposed to the aims of the missionaries, and fore- 
 seeing in their control possible hindrances to 
 their own plans, allied themselves with the anti- 
 missionary party. 
 
 It is a curious fact in the history of the Hawaiian 
 Islands that a group of men, originally non-political 
 in their relations to the natives, should have become 
 allied closely with the governing forces. Church and 
 state were never more completely one than in 
 Hawaii under missionary influence. There are 
 many instances in the history of heathen countries 
 of dishonest and ambitious white men who have 
 played on the vices of native rulers to further their 
 own selfish ends, but few, if any, except in Hawaii, 
 of white men of a high type who have accepted 
 responsible positions in the king's gift and worked 
 with and through him for his people. In the 
 Hawaiian Islands the highest political positions, 
 
Hawaiian Life. J 839- 1860 13 
 
 such as Minister of Finance and of Public Instruc- 
 tion, were filled by missionaries. It was into a 
 complicated political and social situation that 
 Richard Armstrong found himself transferred by 
 his removal to Honolulu. 
 
 He began his work simply as a preacher, but 
 his interests and ability soon drew him (in 1840) 
 into public life, though he never gave up his public 
 preaching, partly in deference to the wishes of the 
 Missionary Board, who did not encourage much 
 devotion to secular affairs, and partly because he 
 wished to retain a direct hold on the natives.* 
 
 Samuel's childhood, like the prime of his father's 
 life, was spent in the midst of the clash of political 
 parties, but he grew up all unconscious of it. To 
 him the conversion of the natives and the fatherly 
 kindness and self-sacrifice shown by the missionary 
 teachers appeared dominant, and if he thought of 
 
 *At the time of his death the reigning king, Kamehameha, 
 wrote describing his services to the natives as follows'. 
 
 " Doctor Armstrong has been spoken of as Minister of Public 
 Instruction and subsequently President of the Board of Educa- 
 tion, but we have only partly described the Important offices 
 which he filled. He was a member of the House of Nobles 
 and of the King's Privy Council, Secretary of the Board of 
 Trustees of Oahu College, Trustee of the Queen's Hospital, 
 executive officer of the Bible and Tract Society, and deeply 
 interested in developing the agricultural resources of the king- 
 dom. 
 
 "No other government officer or missionary was brought 
 into such close intimacy with the native as a whole. Although 
 his week-day duties were so abundant and onerous, he never 
 spared himself as a minister of the Gospel. He was an eloquent 
 preacher in the Hawaiian language, and was always listened to 
 with deep interest by the people in whose welfare he took so 
 deep an interest. Nearly every Sabbath his voice was to be 
 heard in some one of the pulpits of the land." 
 
14 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 their opposers, it was as bad men representing 
 Satan in the world, with whom he need not hold 
 any intercourse. So the missionary children, a 
 colony large enough for play independent of other 
 Caucasian youngsters who might be about, enjoyed 
 themselves in their own little world. 
 
 Honolulu in 1840 was a small town with a cluster 
 of mercantile houses and grog-shops, where fifty 
 to a hundred whalers called annually for supplies, 
 and where some commerce in sandalwood was still 
 carried on. 
 
 A little way back from the water, toward 
 the mountains, were the mission houses, built 
 of adobe or wood, the houses of the higher 
 chiefs, and the old palace where the Kamehamehas 
 reigned in a sort of opera-bouffe grandeur. The 
 town boasted but two other buildings of impor- 
 tance — a brick schoolhouse for the children of 
 foreign residents, and Richard Armstrong's church, 
 the Kawaiahao, a great coral-built edifice then in 
 process of erection. 
 
 The Armstrong home, "Stone House," was one 
 of the pleasantest in Honolulu; set well back in a 
 fine grove and garden, it sheltered comfortably the 
 eight children who grew to manhood and woman- 
 hood there. 
 
 Samuel Armstrong's brightest recollections of 
 his home centered in his merry, blue-eyed father, 
 who had always a smile and a caress for the clus- 
 tering young ones— " silent, tranquil, patient, and 
 
THE ENTRANCE TO STONE HOUSE AT HONOLULU 
 
Hawaiian Life. J 839- J 860 15 
 
 loving," as one of the younger children describes 
 him; alert, wiry, always busy, he carried on all his 
 duties with a light heart. All the mission children 
 loved him, and he was the first to gather them into 
 a class for the purpose of learning the Hawaiian 
 language — a step which was regarded with suspicion 
 by many of the mission mothers, who feared lest 
 knowledge of the Hawaiian tongue might bring their 
 boys into too close contact with that easy-going 
 native life which represented to their minds such 
 fearful laxity of morals. But Richard Armstrong 
 was less afraid that the young people would be 
 contaminated by contact with the Hawaiians than 
 that they should fail to imderstand that race with 
 which they were to have to deal in the future, and 
 so in spite of the frowns of the mothers the class 
 went on. 
 
 Stone House might have been a rendezvous for 
 the missionary children were it not for a certain 
 awe which Mrs. Armstrong unconsciously inspired 
 as she moved with stately dignity about her work. 
 Her tmsmiling mien constrained them and they 
 went elsewhere for their little games. It was 
 a stem household, where the rod was not spared, 
 and where many instincts, now called natural, 
 were, after the manner of the day, repressed. But 
 in it justice, truth and respect for duty were thor- 
 oughly inculcated. Both parents had been trained 
 in other households, where right was put before 
 pleasure, and both had encountered such stress in 
 
i6 Samuel Chapman Armsttong: 
 
 life that moral strength appeared to them the 
 greatest need of the growing mind. 
 
 Mrs. Armstrong's serious manner was the result 
 not only of a certain Puritan habit of repression, but 
 of an intense moral earnestness. Besides the care 
 of her large family, she was deeply interested in 
 work for the native Hawaiians. She conducted 
 sewing and Bible classes, and gathered about her 
 the lowest outcasts of Chinatown, urging the 
 women to leave their lives of sin. Her training in 
 the science of education gave her a peculiar interest 
 in matters pertaining to the home and to women 
 and children, and to them she mainly devoted her 
 energies. "She was a worker," said one who knew 
 her well at this time; "her great characteristic 
 was to do her work truthfully and well and to 
 seize on opportunities." 
 
 In such a home-setting one can imagine little 
 Samuel barefooted, clad in faded blue denim, 
 among his crowd of brothers and sisters and play- 
 mates, blond and slim, full of his father's fun, 
 with long, shaggy hair tossed back from dancing 
 eyes, rushing in and out of the water after his little 
 boats, to make and sail which was the greatest 
 delight of Honolulu boys, with their facilities of 
 reef-locked harbour and constant trade-wind. As 
 marbles, chess, and cards were not allowed, 
 and as football was imknown, baseball (in which 
 Samuel was never proficient), swimming, sailing 
 and riding were the sports among boys, followed, 
 
Hawaiian Life. J 839- J 860 17 
 
 as the players advanced from the age of blue denim 
 trousers into that of great care for neckties, by 
 choir practice, debating clubs, and horseback 
 rides by night. There were glorious dashes over 
 the moonlit sands, twenty or thirty couples of boys 
 and girls abreast, when the game was to have one 
 extra man, then break the ranks and let all try 
 for a place in the line with one of the girls. There 
 were week-long excursions and upward dashes to 
 the cool mountain-tops, where the cataracts had 
 their birth and whence one could overlook the ocean 
 rising on all sides to the level of the eye like a great 
 blue saucer. "He was a high-spirited youth," says 
 one who knew yoimg Armstrong well in those 
 times, "with an abrupt manner of looking up, 
 shaking his hair from his eyes. He used to say 
 that he would be a politician or a business man — 
 that he would be a philanthropist was the furthest 
 from our thoughts." 
 
 His childhood and boyhood are best described 
 in his own words, written in a chapter of reminis- 
 cences by him some forty years later, in which the 
 circumstances of that far-away childhood appear 
 more idyllic for the lapse of years. 
 
 "For several summers after our arrival in Honolulu 
 we spent some months at Makawao, high up on Halea- 
 kala, at Mr. McLane's sugar plantation, where the 
 view of mountain and ocean was magnificent. Here 
 donkey-riding, eating sugar-cane, hanging round the 
 sugar-house, bathing in the deep gulches, and exploring 
 
i8 Samuel Chapman Afmstfong 
 
 the wild country and tropic forests filled what were 
 the happiest days of our lives. How exciting it was 
 when we were pulled round into Maalea Bay in whale- 
 boats or sailed in the Maria, and Captain Hobson, 
 in default of a white flag, sent one of father's shirts up 
 to the masthead, to announce the arrival of a mis- 
 sionary party. With our belongings we were piled 
 into ox-carts, and after five hours' slow pulling up 
 the sides of Haleakala would at last reach 'Makawao,' 
 to be greeted by the smiling Hawaiian housewife, 
 'Maile.' In those days the natives brought their 
 kumu (teacher) their accustomed tribute of fruit, 
 vegetables, chickens, etc., thus eking out the small 
 salary of (I believe) $300 for each couple and $50 extra 
 for each child. Those were days of cheerful greetings, 
 youthful rejoicings, and fatherly benedictions, when 
 the people came — in a minimum of costume — from 
 far and near with bananas, sugar-cane, guavas, cocoa- 
 nuts, and delicious ohia. 
 
 "The large crop of small boys that swarmed about 
 the mission had the usual piratical instincts of their 
 kind, and although we were all subjected to the severest 
 Puritanic discipline, we managed to execute occasional 
 raids on the barrel of lump sugar in the mission deposi- 
 tory when good Mr. Cooke and Mr. Castle were not 
 looking. The 'Maternal Association' took up the 
 more hopeless cases of those who played checkers or 
 said * By George ! ' The boys were thrown into con- 
 vulsions when one of our number reported hearing an 
 excited missionary father say *By Jingo!' 
 
 "We had one real luxury — that of being barefooted 
 all the year round, wearing shoes on Sunday only, and 
 then under protest. The Sunday morning cleaning- 
 up and dressing was looked forward to with dread, 
 as our sympathies were all with the natives, who, in 
 
Hawaiian Life. J839-J860 19 
 
 the early days, took off their clothes when it rained, 
 so that a shower as church was closing produced an 
 extraordinary scene. The material of our usual gar- 
 ments was a blue denim of the cheapest kind, which, 
 to allow for the growth of the wearer, was made with 
 two or three tucks in the trousers legs. These being 
 successively let out after many washings, made a series 
 of humiliating bright blue bands about our ankles. 
 I can remember wearing aprons, which I took every 
 opportunity to discard, although I invariably came 
 to grief from so doing, as the rod in those days was 
 laid on freely. 
 
 " Molasses-and- water was bliss to us, and ginger- 
 cake was too good to be true. . . . We went 
 barefoot, we were hungry, and felt the ferule about 
 our hands and shoulders, and had our lunches stolen 
 by the other himgry boys, and had prayer meeting 
 out among the rocks, and learned seven honest verses 
 by heart for Sunday-school, besides the catechism at 
 home. The small boy of to-day tries to be a gentle- 
 man, which we never dreamed of; our ambition was, 
 after getting out of sight of home, to throw away our 
 last vestment — ^the checked apron fastened around 
 our necks by fond mothers — and then in native rollick- 
 ing freedom delight in sea, in salt ponds and wild 
 mountains. 
 
 "We went to Mr. Castle's Sunday-school and also 
 to the 'Bethel.' We were required to recite seven 
 Bible verses to Mr. Castle, and to bow as we went out, 
 which later ceremony was particularly obnoxious to 
 us and gave rise to much cutting-up. I was a pupil at 
 the ' Bethel ' of General Marshall and Mr. C. R. Bishop, 
 and from them received my first instruction in 'Let 
 dogs delight to bark and bite,' etc. 
 
 "Father's chief work was preaching, and I am sorry 
 
20 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 to say that, although we always attended the services, 
 the part we took in them was sometimes far from 
 creditable. We usually sat with mother, and were 
 kept quiet by frequent gingerbread, but I remember 
 that once father took two of us into the pulpit and was 
 obliged to interrupt his sermon in order to settle a 
 quarrel between us. But nothing disturbed the equa- 
 nimity of the natives, not even the dog-fights, which 
 were of frequent occurrence, for they doted on dogs, 
 often bringing them to church in their arms, while the 
 children toddled on behind. 
 
 "These dogs were a perpetual trial. I have seen 
 deacons with long sticks probing after the wretched 
 curs as they dodged under the seats, the preacher 
 scolding roundly the while, and not a smile in the 
 congregation. 
 
 "But the services were interesting. Sometimes 
 when I stand outside a Negro church I get precisely 
 the effect of a Hawaiian congregation, the same fulness 
 and heartiness and occasional exquisite voices, and 
 am instantly transplanted 10,000 miles away, to the 
 great Kawaiahao church where father used to preach 
 to 2,500 people, who swarmed in on foot and horse- 
 back from shore and valley and mountain for many 
 miles around. 
 
 "Outside it was like an encampment; inside it was 
 a sea of dusky faces. On one side was the King's 
 pew, with scarlet hangings; the royal family always 
 distinguishing themselves by coming in very late, 
 with the loudest of squeaking shoes. The more the 
 shoes squeaked the better was the wearer pleased, 
 and often a man, after walking noisily in, would sit 
 down and pass his shoes through the window for 
 his wife to wear in, thus doubling the family glory. 
 Non-musical shoes were hardly salable. 
 
Hawaiian Life. J 839- J 860 21 
 
 "One of my earliest and most vivid recollections is 
 of moving into 'Stone House,' which was built of coral 
 and stood at the foot of 'Punch Bowl,' an extinct 
 crater, from the summit of which a royal battery of 
 fifteen sixty-pounders often fired national salutes, 
 which were answered by ships of war in the harbour 
 below, making the windows and dishes rattle. Although 
 the guns were all pointed in the air and could not by 
 any possibility hurt anybody but the careless artillery- 
 men, I thought the place impregnable. As a matter 
 of fact, a couple of pirates could have captured the 
 whole affair, for the garrison slept all night, and a half- 
 dozen resolute midnight cats might have scared them 
 into instantaneous surrender. 
 
 "One of our great delights here was that we had 
 plenty of white pine for making miniature ships, which 
 we sailed in the salt ponds and in the quiet waters 
 within the reef, and for sawing into blocks to represent 
 soldiers, wherewith my brother Will and I had many 
 a pitched battle in the garret. Our heroes were those 
 of the Mexican war — just over — and we fired our powder 
 and shot out of little leaden cannon. The necessity 
 of earning our pocket money kept us on the lookout 
 for profitable chances, but our fun was none the less 
 joyful because we had to work for it. 
 
 " Our herd of cattle, twelve in number, were quartered 
 at night in the cow-pen in the back yard, the sucking 
 calves being penned by themselves. Will, Baxter 
 and I did the milking, for which father roused us every 
 morning. There was no bringing up of calves by hand ; 
 we had not even a bam; the herd was driven to the 
 mountains and watched all day by a Kanaka cow- 
 boy, who slept most of the time, and then were driven 
 in at sundown, half wild and altogether unwilling to 
 be milked. We did not get much milk per cow, and 
 
22 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 spent a good deal of time in fierce combat with the calves. 
 This did not meet the views of our American-bred 
 parents, who gave us a series of alarming facts in regard 
 to New England cows and the boys who milked them 
 — abnormal boys who 'loved work.' I may say, indeed, 
 that we were brought up on New England boys, and I 
 can well remember the interest with which we watched 
 the first importation into Honolulu of these marvels, 
 and our delight when we discovered that they were 
 even lazier than we were — that not one of them liked to 
 get up early or preferred toil to play. Inspiration from 
 that quarter, by which we had been so often shamed 
 into laborious days, was thenceforth 'played out.' 
 In the general mission cow-pen, much larger than 
 ours, I used to think that I could tell to whom the cows 
 belonged by their resemblance to their owners; in a 
 few cases I was sure of this. We had no stables, and 
 out in the wild pasture had to catch with the lasso 
 every horse we rode; and everybody rode — men, women 
 and children; the latter sometimes, as in our case, 
 beginning humbly on calves and donkeys. The natives 
 were passionately fond of riding, and would walk a 
 mile to catch a horse to ride half a mile. The women 
 bestrode horses like men, but with long scarfs of bril- 
 liant calico draping either leg and streaming behind 
 them in the breeze. Saturday was their gala day, 
 and the streets were filled with gay cavalcades of happy 
 Hawaiians. We played baseball, but not in the 
 American fashion; and 'I spy' was a favorite game, 
 especially when we could play it in the graveyard. 
 Nothing, however, was more permanently popular than 
 swimming in the great deep mountain-basins, of which 
 Kapena Falls answered our purpose best. The great 
 feat was to jump from the cUff, some forty feet, into 
 the depths below, where we played like fishes. A 
 
FAMILY GROUP- SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG AT THE AGE OF i8 
 
Hawaiian Life. J839-J860 23 
 
 horseback tour round the island of Oahu was a great 
 lark, with the races on the long, lovely sea-beach and 
 the nights at Kaneohe, Kualoa and Waialua. 
 
 "My brother Baxter's cattle-ranch at Waimanalo 
 was a favorite and beautiful resort; it was a little 
 kingdom by the sea, bounded by the ocean and moun- 
 tains. It was exciting to jump into a cattle-pen with 
 a lasso and catch a young steer by the horns, while 
 another lassoed his hind leg and a third pulled him over 
 and branded him. In a few moments he was released, 
 and then a race for the fence ensued to keep out of the 
 way of his fury. Though we did this dozens of times, 
 I do not think that any one of us was ever hurt." 
 
 The boy kept a journal of his vacations from his 
 twelfth to his eighteenth year, and from these a 
 few extracts follow, written when he was twelve 
 years of age, while taking a school-inspecting trip 
 with his father. 
 
 ' ' July 15,1851, Left for Kau in a canoe. We went to 
 Kealea and had a short meeting and then went on to 
 Kaohe, where we slept. In the morning we had a look 
 about the country; it was very green. The house 
 where we slept was an excellent native house; it was 
 clean and neat. 
 
 "July 1 6th. Father examined some schools. A 
 great many canoes came in. In the afternoon we started 
 in the canoe for Kapua ; we arrived a little before sunset. 
 This place is very rocky. They have some goats here. 
 
 "July 17th, About three o'clock in the morning 
 we started for Kau on foot. Father was sick, and so 
 he rode an ox; it was very lazy indeed. Our road 
 was rocky, especially the first part. During the latter 
 
24 Samuel Chapman Armstrongf 
 
 part we went through large groves of trees. After a 
 walk of about five and a half hours we arrived at a 
 native house, where we had a little rest and then started 
 on. The road was good and the walk was pleasant, only 
 we were rather tired. There were several small grass 
 houses along the road for people to sleep in who went 
 on the road. When we got to the borders of Kau, 
 father lay down and I and two native boys went ahead. 
 We had gone some way when we met the horses. I 
 took one and went on. I got to Kau about five o'clock. 
 The rest of the company got there at six. Kau is a 
 very green place. We have grapevines, figs, sugar- 
 cane, potatoes, and many nice fruits. 
 
 "July 2 2d. The native schools were examined. 
 They study principally reading and arithmetic. In 
 the afternoon we went up on the hill to slide. We had 
 bananas to slide on. We would balance ourselves and 
 then shoot down the hill like race-horses. 
 
 "July 24th. We had goat for dinner. 
 
 "July 25th. We had some presents from the natives 
 of fish, kalo * and other things. We had some fun in 
 the evening running races. 
 
 "July 27th. Started for the volcano on horseback. 
 
 "July 28th. The smoke of the volcano soon began 
 to appear; also Mauna Loa. After we had gone several 
 miles we came to the pahochoe, which is lava. We could 
 distinguish the road for some way, but at last it got lost. 
 A native came up and asked to be our guide. He took 
 us away down in the woods and then up again. After 
 a while we came in sight of the volcano ; it looked awful. 
 We went on to the house and slept. 
 
 "July 30th. We went down about noon and visited 
 the volcano. There was not any fire. We got some 
 strawberries." 
 
 * Equivalent of taro. 
 
Hawaiian Life* J839-J860 25 
 
 It was a childhood of almost ideal advantage 
 for any man, but especially for Armstrong, in whose 
 after-life time for recuperation and enjoyment was 
 more than usually limited. It gave him a delight 
 in Nature, in the simple pleasures of life, and in 
 bodily exercise that kept the balance of his mind 
 true when circumstances impelled him toward 
 one-sided activit57". He never forgot the fun of 
 being a boy — never, in fact, quite got over being 
 a boy. 
 
 He watched in a respectful, interested way 
 the drama of native life going on about him. 
 
 "The high chiefs — John Young, Kanaina, Paki, 
 Governor Kekuanaua and others, with their fat wives — 
 were majestic creatures, towering above the common 
 people and foreigners, but 'the mighty have fallen,' 
 and when Queen Emma and Mrs. Bishop died the line 
 became extinct. I remember the royal soirees at the 
 palace, when the gorgeous uniforms and noble bearing 
 of these chiefs threw foreign diplomats and naval 
 ofHcers into the shade. We mission children would 
 join the throng that rallied around there (the old 
 palace) when the chiefs stalked majestically around 
 in their regimentals — grander men than they make 
 in these days — and soldiers stood around in imposing 
 array holding old flint-lock muskets as harmless as 
 pop-guns, while the band played; royal fat females 
 paddled from room to room, the embodiment of serene 
 dignity. How we boys did not dare go inside, but 
 looked in at the awful ceremony of presentation and 
 wondered why people didn't sometimes fall down dead 
 in awe of the royal presence ! But the supreme moment 
 
26 Samuel Chapman Armstrongf 
 
 was to come. The banquet hall opened and in marched 
 kings and queens and nobles and dignitaries; the 
 famished boys did not dare intrude, but their turn 
 came by and by. Father got on capitally with this 
 native aristocracy; they always expected a good time 
 when he appeared, and in spite of his occasional severity 
 they truly loved him." 
 
 Most of his acquaintance with the rank and file 
 of the natives was gained on riding trips taken 
 alone or with his father among them, when, in the 
 absence of hotels or hired lodgings, he slept night 
 after night in the native huts. 
 
 "The natives were all kindness to friends and to 
 those who trusted them," he writes. "Father used 
 to tell us of a walk of twenty miles which he took 
 through a waterless district, when, distressed and faint 
 with thirst, he came upon a watermelon in the road. 
 After some hesitation he ate it, and at his journey's 
 end met a native who asked if he had found it and told 
 him he left it there for him. He always gave his purse 
 to his guide and never lost anything. 
 
 "Often have we boys halted our horses before their 
 thatched houses and been greeted with, 'Where are 
 you from?' After the reply, the universal formula 
 was, without regard to time or distance, ' Mama oukou ! ' 
 (You have come swiftly.) Next the question, 'Are 
 you hungry?' to which there was but one answer, 
 'Very hungry.' Then a stampede of the household 
 and neighborhood in pursuit of some fish, pigs, poultry 
 and vegetables, cooked underground on hot stones, 
 but the food was always eaten cold. After dismounting, 
 we would lie on our backs on the mats and father's 
 
Hawaiian Life. J839-J860 27 
 
 old retainers would ' lomi-lomi ' the fatigue all out of 
 us, for these people have, it is claimed, the most perfect 
 massage or movement-cure known. It is part of their 
 hospitality, and it is delicious." 
 
 This close familiarity with the natives at their 
 homes and in their daily lives gave him an oppor- 
 tunity to learn the characteristics of a childish race, 
 weak, yet capable of development under wise 
 leadership. 
 
 To know a race intimately and accurately does 
 not imply a desire to help it. The young Southerner 
 is reared in close association with the Negro; the 
 plainsman knows the Indian; but Armstrong ab- 
 sorbed from the atmosphere about him an attitude 
 of protection and helpfulness toward the weaker 
 race. The conversation of his elders and the daily 
 work and effort of those whom he most respected 
 taught him that it is not enough to alone under- 
 stand, but that to understand in order to pity and 
 to serve is the proper attitude of a Christian. The 
 missionary fathers, like the slaveholders, practically 
 regarded the Hawaiians as of a type inferior to 
 themselves so far as mental and moral fiber was 
 concerned ; but no missionary ever lost the point of 
 view that the soul of each of these people was equal 
 in the sight of the Almighty to his own, and though 
 individuals may often have failed in discretion and 
 wisdom, the missionaries as a whole never forgot 
 the thought, the mainspring of their work, that to 
 build up and strengthen a human soul is the most 
 
28 Samuel Chapman Afmstfong 
 
 important work that a man can do. To his 
 early absorption of this idea may imdoubtedly be 
 ascribed Armstrong's later unquestioning dedica- 
 tion of his powers to philanthropic work. 
 
 Samuel Armstrong received his early education 
 at the " Royal School" at Punahou, foimded in 1840 
 for the training of the young chiefs. Some of these 
 dark-skinned youth, among them Kalakaua and his 
 sister Liliuokalani, or " Lydia" as she was familiarly 
 called, who later became king and queen, were his 
 playmates; but the Hawaiians, scant offspring of a 
 declining race, were soon outnumbered by the sturdy 
 mission children who were admitted to the school, 
 and in time the Hawaiians disappeared from it 
 altogether. 
 
 The "Royal School" was presided over by the 
 brothers Edward and George Beckwith, who suc- 
 ceeded in inspiring their scholars with a real interest 
 in study. Armstrong wrote of it in later years : 
 
 "I have never since seen or heard of such a school as 
 this became. Every boy and girl seemed inspired to 
 learn, and we played as hard as we studied. Our 
 teachers led us up the hill of science. There was a 
 moral atmosphere, a Christian influence in the school 
 which permanently affected the lives of most of the 
 pupils. I regard it as the ideal school of all I have 
 ever known for the perfect balance of its mental and 
 moral inspiration. Under Mr. George Beckwith, a 
 pupil of Doctor Samuel Taylor, of Andover, and a 
 
Hawaiian Life, J839-J860 29 
 
 remarkably fine classical scholar, we plunged into the 
 mysteries of Latin and Greek." 
 
 Some manual labor was required of all the pupils. 
 
 "More distinct is my recollection of our manual- 
 labor drill — I did not then have it on the brain. How, 
 reqtiired to hoe our patches in severalty of melons or 
 com or summer squash till we could count seven 
 stars, we studied the heavens as I have never since 
 done, not daring to shirk, for Mr. Rice, the farmer, was 
 an embodiment of firm, kindly discipline that I have 
 never forgotten. He hit us hard sometimes, when 
 delinquent, but was always fair. How I hated work 
 then, impatiently digging up the melon seeds to see if 
 they had started!" 
 
 That he took a genuine pleasure in school work 
 is shown by the following extracts from the vacation 
 journals. A boy who names his sail-boat and his 
 horse after the heroes of his text-books, and studies 
 his Latin grammar before breakfast in vacation, has 
 no half-hearted interest in his studies. 
 
 "HiLo, Hawaii. 
 ' ' November 27, 1857. Friday. This a . m . I finished my 
 re\dew of the Greek grammar to Section 133; burrowed 
 round among Doctor Coan's books to find some classical 
 authors. It was very rainy all day and favorable to 
 study. Delved into Telemaque as yesterday and read 
 two books. . . . Made a topmast and squaresail 
 spar for the Telemachtis preparatory to to-morrow's 
 sailing. The evening closed early, and I read aloud in 
 'Peter Parley's Recollections of a Lifetime' most of 
 
30 Samuel Chapman Atmstrongf 
 
 the evening. Read C * to sleep from 'Blair's 
 
 Rhetoric' 
 
 "Saturday, November 2Sth. Commenced this morn- 
 ing a review of the syntax in Andrews and Stoddard's 
 Latin grammar; completed three pages and intended 
 
 *A delicate sister. 
 
 Note. — While he was studying at Oahu College events 
 occurred which perhaps furnished the first practical test of 
 his powers. He was called on to take charge of a geometry 
 class whose regtdar teacher, one of the principals, had been 
 obliged to give it up for a time. This incident is described by 
 one of the pupils thus: "It required no little tact for an under- 
 graduate to take charge of a class under such circumstances. 
 But Armstrong seemed equal to any emergency. On the play- 
 ground he was the leading spirit in all athletic exercises, and 
 was the undisputed champion in the game of wicket, in which 
 his side seemed always victorious. 
 
 " On taking the class in geometry, from the very first 
 he began to inspire us with some of his own enthusiasm. 
 Coming in from a hotly contested game of wicket, he 
 looked every inch a man. He would deliberately close 
 his own book and lay it one side, seldom referring to it 
 during the hour of recitation. It was thus easy for him 
 to persuade us to follow his example in this particular. Our 
 memories were trained to do admirable service, so that at the 
 end of the year the majority, if not all, of the class could repeat 
 the entire seven books, except the demonstration and mathe- 
 matical calculations, from, beginning to end, or give any axiom, 
 any definition or proposition by its appropriate book and 
 number. 
 
 " In the demonstrations on the blackboard a very different 
 course was pursued. The figures were often purposely 
 changed from the form given in the book. Numerals were 
 usually substituted for the letters, and every efifort was made 
 to make the demonstration as much as possible a training of 
 the reason with as little of memorising as could be. We were 
 stimulated to study up other demonstrations, and sometimes 
 he would set the example by giving us the result of his own 
 study of other text-books. In this way we were trained to self- 
 
Hawaiian Life* J839-J860 31 
 
 to make a furious onset at the same thing after 
 breakfast, 
 
 "After breakfast we talked or gossiped. They, 
 
 H and D , called, and soon after that we 
 
 had a splendid bath in the Wailuku, which is now. 
 
 reliant habits of study, which I have found the greatest service 
 in all my subsequent mathematical work. 
 
 "It was remarkable how much hard work he got out of his 
 class. But in this, as in everything else, he always led others 
 by his example. I have been under the instruction of various 
 teachers in the higher mathematics; some of them were finer 
 scholars than Armstrong, but I have yet to know the man who 
 could inspire an entire class with his own spirit and purpose as 
 he did. There was something in his personality far more 
 influential than mere learning or scholarship, and I can never 
 cease to look back to the work done under him as among the 
 most valuable to me of my whole life. 
 
 "With the end of the school year came the public examination. 
 The books were, as usual, laid aside, and with a method and 
 precision almost military the class was put through its drill. 
 Every one was delighted with the bearing of the teacher and 
 the readiness of the class. At length, by way of variety, 
 Edward Wilcox was told to demonstrate a certain theorem in 
 Book First. After drawing the figures, he was requested to 
 change the order of the numerals to be used in the demonstra- 
 tion. Then, after a few moments given him to fix the figures thus 
 renumbered in his memory, he was ordered to turn his back 
 on the board and proceed with the demonstration from the 
 figures thus pictured in his mind. This was done in such a 
 ready and prompt manner as to excite the surprise of one of 
 the examining committee, who, not appreciating the true object 
 of this unusual display of intellectual gymnastics, interrupted 
 him with the repeated request, 'Look at your figures, young 
 man.' Armstrong then explained to the rather puzzled 
 examiner the nature of the test to which he was putting his 
 pupil, who was now permitted to finish his task, to the great 
 interest of all present. The superior work done by the teacher 
 and his class was highly appreciated by the committee, and will 
 never be forgotten by those who had the good fortune to belong 
 to the class." — ^Joseph S. Emerson, in The Outlook, Oct. 21, 1893. 
 
32 Samwel Chapman Atmsttong 
 
 high. Only D and I ventured to cross the main 
 
 current. H 's wife didn't want him to try it. 
 
 "June nth. We finished up our Virgil yesterday 
 and have now on hand the Anabasis and Cicero. We 
 commenced the Manilian Law yesterday — it's rather 
 tough. After Itmch I saddled my little mare and 
 went to Hamakua-poko to find my horse Draco. I 
 scoured the country and saw about every horse in 
 Hamakua, but after riding some twelve or thirteen 
 miles came back without him, but fotmd the cow down 
 near Maliko with no rope on ; the scamps had stolen it. 
 Reaching home, I fotmd that the horse had been on 
 hand all the time and was with the others." 
 
 He remained at the Punahou School till the year 
 i860, first as a small boy rebellious against hoeing 
 his patch of com, then as a youth with increasing 
 social interests and increasing ambitions, and finally 
 as a collegian; for in 1855 the school was renamed 
 Oahu College, and became an institution for higher 
 learning. Here as one of a class of four he took 
 the first two years of a college course, which pre- 
 pared him to later enter the Jiinior class at Williams 
 College in i860. 
 
 The following extracts from the vacation journal 
 show that he was not permitted to fall into a way 
 of life where his head did all the work: 
 
 "Saturday, January 9, 1857. After breakfast, father 
 decided to build a house for Akio (the Chinese man- 
 servant), and I went to work to collect materials. Got 
 3x4 scantling from Castle's for plates ; procured the 
 rest, tie-beams, rafters, floor-joists, clapboards, shingles. 
 
Hawaiian Life. J 839- J 860 33 
 
 etc., at Lewer's. Scantling now cost 3^ cents per foot, 
 shingles $8 per thousand, clapboards (spruce), 6 feet, 
 $9 per hundred, which is very reasonable. After draw- 
 ing the lumber with Boki (the horse) and Akio, I took 
 
 to H a copy of the 'Anonymous' which I had 
 
 borrowed. We had singing-school in the evening. 
 
 "Monday, January 11. This morning I got up 
 early and tinkered away at a new gate for the upper 
 lot. I finished it by ten o'clock. 
 
 "Tuesday, January 12th. This morning I rose 
 early and bathed. After breakfast I overhauled the 
 wire fence lot, straightened the wires and braced the 
 posts. This dirty job took me till 2:30 p.m., when I 
 went home and devoured something, and then collected 
 my thoughts as I could and considered my address." 
 
 The question of pocket money still occupied the 
 missionary children, and many were the ways they 
 adopted of earning it. 
 
 "One of the ways of earning pocket money as we got 
 older was to get an appointment as assessor of taxes 
 in some country district during the summer vacation. 
 Six weeks of hard work would bring in fifty dollars. It 
 was not play, especially when it came to counting the 
 dogs, which, being a luxury and a nuisance, were taxed 
 at a dollar a head. The burning question of Hawaiian 
 politics was the dog tax; any man who would pledge 
 himself to diminish it was sure of his election to the 
 Hawaiian legislature. Torrents of eloquence were 
 poured out on this subject, and one country member, 
 Ukeke, nearly gained immortality by a bill to abolish 
 the tax on good dogs and tax only bad ones, but the 
 revenue tax was necessary to support royalty and the 
 state, and there was no escape. It goes without saying 
 
34 Samuel Chapman Ai-msttong: 
 
 that every subterfuge was resorted to by the owners, 
 and I remember that my favorite method of detection 
 was, with my escort, to gallop furiously up to the house 
 and halt suddenly, making such a racket that the curs 
 would bark and betray themselves in their hiding- 
 places, inside calabashes, under the dresses of their 
 squatting mistresses, and tied to distant trees. Then 
 began pleading: 'Don't coimt that dog; we are going 
 to eat him to-morrow ! ' ' That one is too little,' etc. It 
 was tiresome work, but often very fimny. Many of my 
 contemporaries at the islands assisted in some such way 
 in paying the expenses of their education, and it did none 
 of us any harm. [Some] worked as surveyors, striking 
 their lines through tropical jungles; others took posi- 
 tions as governors of guano islands 1,500 miles away 
 in the remote Pacific seas, and with groups of natives 
 under them loaded the clipper ships that ran down 
 from San Francisco for freight.". 
 
 To supplement his summer earnings he undertook 
 in his twenty-first year the work of chief clerk to 
 his father during the absence* of the latter in the 
 United States, in the year 1859-60. 
 
 " I was then," he says, " a sophomore at Oahu College, 
 but the liberal salary and the prospect of independence 
 tempted me, and for some months I worked hard, 
 editing, book-keeping, superintending schools, etc., 
 keeping up my studies by night and morning work and 
 my strength by long gallops to and from the beautiful 
 Manoa Valley." 
 
 It was perhaps for financial reasons also that he 
 undertook the editing of the Hae Hawaii, a 
 newspaper, written in the Hawaiian tongue, which 
 
Hawaiian Life, J839-J860 35 
 
 was read freely by the natives. "Often a group 
 of natives could be seen," writes his brother, "in 
 the heart of the wood, listening while one read 
 aloud Sam's words of editorial wisdom." By 
 means of this editorial work the young man gained 
 some influence among the Hawaiians, and added 
 to his store of experiences an acquaintance with 
 wily white politicians. 
 
 "Sam is acquiring quite a reputation as an editor," 
 wrote his father to the eldest daughter, away in Cali- 
 fornia, "and even numbers His Majesty among his 
 editorial corps. There have come in about 600 new 
 subscribers since Sam took charge of the paper. The 
 Queen spoke yesterday of the Hae as a very interesting 
 paper; but having his college studies to attend to, Sam 
 is rather overworked." 
 
 The years 1859 and i860 passed in this busy 
 fashion without radical change till September, 
 i860, when an event occurred which suddenly 
 formulated his plans and stirred him into manhood. 
 
 "On a quiet Sunday morning , . . , " he writes, 
 " I rode home from service to find a gathering of natives 
 at the gate and my sister weeping at the door. Before 
 she spoke I knew that father was dead." 
 
 A fortnight before, Richard Armstrong had been 
 thrown from his horse and seriously injured, but 
 heretofore his recovery had seemed probable. 
 
 It had been the father's dearest wish that his son 
 
36 Samuel Chapman Atmstfong 
 
 should go to Wilhams College in order that he might 
 ioe under the influence of Doctor Mark Hopkins, 
 its president, then regarded as the leading teacher 
 of philosophy and morals in America. Samuel 
 determined, therefore, to leave the islands at once, in 
 order to enter, if possible, the Jimior class of Williams 
 College in tim.e for the winter term ; and toward the 
 end of September he set sail for the United States, 
 leaving his sorrowing family behind him — foiur 
 sisters, mother and brother, in the old Stone House. 
 
 The voyage to America was accomplished with- 
 out accident, though the ship encoimtered a terrible 
 gale which blew it with perilous speed toward the 
 coast. The gale was succeeded by a calm which 
 detained the voyagers several days within sight 
 of land. During this time, as Armstrong dis- 
 creetly observes, "everybody but I did nothing but 
 swear and smoke; I sighed for poi and my native 
 land." 
 
 In. later years, looking back over his youth, his 
 mind passed over the pleasant social aspect of it — 
 the jolly rides with his companions and the merry- 
 makings — and turned to the inspiring beauty of 
 Hawaiian scenery. He wrote in 1886 from a sick- 
 bed to a group of young people then in Hawaii : 
 
 "The beauty and grandeur of Hawaiian scenery is a 
 noble teacher. ... It will make you better men 
 and women if you will let it. Get all of it you can. 
 Your special gaieties, parties and things are of no 
 account whatever compared with the ministry of 
 
Hawaiian Life. J 839- J 860 37 
 
 mountain and sea. Listen to them. Approach and 
 live with them all you can. Hear and heed these great 
 silent teachers about you." 
 
 And again: 
 
 "You have the volcano to make you devout." 
 
 But now, naturally enough, it was of his friends, 
 of the home behind him, and of his plans for the 
 future that he thought. From this voyage dates 
 the beginning of a series of letters to his mother 
 and sisters which describe minutely his voyage, 
 his college life, and his experiences in the army, 
 written at first in the flowery style then fashionable, 
 later with increasing brevity and force. In the 
 first letters one can see the young man, half home- 
 sick, half glad to escape from the tears and mourn- 
 ing of Stone House, hardly conscious of his inexpe- 
 rience and certainly imabashed by it, intending 
 heartily to return. To what he was going he knew 
 not. His parents had both desired that he should 
 be a minister, and in the absence of any other plan 
 he held their wishes first ; but there was in his heart 
 a rollicking delight in life that did not draw him 
 toward a theological seminary. 
 
 Caroline, the eldest sister of the Armstrong chil- 
 dren, had married some time before this and was 
 living at Sacramento, California. Toward her home 
 he made his way. He describes his arrival in 
 Sacramento as follows: 
 
 "As I walked up to the Railroad House in that new 
 
38 Samuel Chapman Armstrong- 
 
 city (new to me), I could almost have sung 'Home 
 Again.' There I was taken charge of by a little squirm- 
 ing fellow that always went on a smart dog-trot, and 
 held a dozen lamps in one hand, two carpet-bags and 
 several keys in the other, and opened doors without 
 laying anything down; that chap stowed me away in 
 a little cell, where I felt like a dog shut up for chasing 
 hens. In the morning I found my Sacramento home." 
 
 After a merry week with his sister he took ship for 
 Panama and crossed the isthmus, where another 
 vessel botmd for New York awaited him. He 
 wrote his mother, describing the short journey by- 
 rail as follows: 
 
 "At 4 P.M. we started over in the cars. The scenery 
 was quite Hawaiian-like, and the Itixuriant foliage was 
 good for the eyes. Soon we stopped for another train, 
 about an hour, and I managed to procure a lot of excel- 
 lent sugar-cane, which was a delightful luxury to the 
 girls and myself. It was now night, and the train 
 thundered along, rousing the dogs in the httle dirty 
 hamlets we passed through, and the dark, oily-skinned 
 savages would come with lights to their doors to see 
 us and give us a salutatory yell as we passed along, 
 while naked little imps would throw sticks at the cars. 
 The thickets were enshrouded in darkaess, and we 
 could see the quiet Chagres River close by us through 
 the openings in the chaparral. Anon we would dive 
 into a gloomy gorge, and the scene on the whole was 
 romantic, especially as the fire-flies were flashing from 
 every dark bush and gleaming in every shade. I often 
 think how little those at home fancied where I was 
 during those moments. I like the strangeness and 
 wildness of things. 
 
Hawaiian Life. J539-J860 39 
 
 "At about eight o'clock we stepped into a restaurant 
 at Aspinwall to wait for the steamer to get up steam, 
 and I strolled about, beset with entreaties to buy and 
 eat or to purchase shell baskets; but I was inexorable. 
 Soon we were on the Ariel and away on a smooth sea." 
 
 In two weeks he arrived at New York, a month 
 after his departure from Hawaii. An elder brother, 
 William N. Armstrong, had been settled in New 
 York as a lawyer for several years, and to him the 
 newcomer went at once. The two lived together 
 for some days, and under the guidance of the elder 
 the yotmger saw the sights of the town. 
 
 "It's Friday evening, November 30th, and I'm now 
 in Will's room in 28 Union Square, away uptoimi and 
 away up in the fourth story [sic !], and it's eleven o'clock. 
 You may want to ask, as many do, 'How does New 
 York seem?' It seems sure enough a great city. I 
 am not disappointed either way. It gratified my 
 curiosity to see the marble palaces and majestic buildings, 
 but excites no feeling, no emotion. Nothing looks as 
 if it had been very hard to construct. I only think how 
 much these houses cost. Things are generally exag- 
 gerated; the crowds on the sidewalks are not so great, 
 after all — one can cross the street a hundred times an 
 hour without danger, even in Broadway. I make 
 nothing of doing it; it only requires self-possession and 
 quickness. 
 
 " In these crowds a fellow feels as he does in a wilder- 
 ness, except that in the latter there is a certain solemnity 
 and sacredness. In both one feels that no one is 
 noticing him and he can do just as he likes. I'll tell 
 you what did astonish me — it was Beecher's Thanks- 
 
40 Samuel Chapman Axmstfong; 
 
 giving sermon — a splendid effort. His eloquence was 
 matchless, his control over the audience wonderful. 
 Beecher is equal to his fame. 
 
 "I also listened for half an hour or so to the opera 
 of 'The Jewess' at the Academy of Music, and it was 
 my first sight. I was and am a convert to the opera; 
 such sylph-like grace in acting, such queenly beauty, 
 rich, melodious voices, gorgeous robes, magnificent 
 scenery; such a majestic bass as that of Carl Formes, 
 and the delicious trilling and swells of Madame Anna 
 Bishop were enough to inspire me with a flow of delightful 
 sensations such as I never before have known. The 
 music gave dignity and power to the language they 
 uttered, and the story involved lent a charm to the 
 music. The opera was grand ! Quite different from 
 the chorus of ten thousand wild he-goats that usher in 
 the morning and raise their clarion-like matins on the 
 crags of Waimanalo. Could you have stood by out 
 side that evening as the full chorus burst out, or heard 
 the voices of the Jewish maidens, you'd have felt 
 healthier for a week. 
 
 "Well, it's past twelve; to-morrow I go to Barrington 
 and Williamstown ; the rest of our party are all at 
 Barrington now." 
 
SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG AT THE AGE Oi 20 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Williams College, i 860-1862 
 
 "It was, I think, in the winter of i860, when I was 
 rooming in East College at Williams, that into my 
 introspective life Nature flung a sort of cataclysm of 
 health named Sam Armstrong," wrote a friend and 
 classmate many years after, "like other cyclones from 
 the South Seas ; a Sandwich Islander, son of a missionary. 
 Until Miss Murfree wrote her 'Prophet of the Great 
 Smoky Mountains, ' it would have been impossible to 
 describe Armstrong's immediate personal effect. There 
 was a quality in it that defied the ordinary English vo- 
 cabulary. To use the eastern Tennessee dialect, which 
 alone could do him justice, he was 'plumb survigrous.' 
 To begin with, as Mark Twain might express it, he 
 had been fortimate in the selection of his parents. 
 The roots of his nature struck deep into the soil of 
 two strong races. . . . Then, too, he was an islander; 
 his constitution smacked of the seas. There was about 
 him something of the high courage and jollity of the 
 tar; he carried with him the vitalities of the ocean. 
 Like all those South Sea Islanders, he had been brought 
 up to the water ; it had imparted to him a kind of mental 
 as well as physical amphibiousness. It seemed natural 
 for him to strike out in any element. But what im- 
 pressed one most was his schooling. Not but that 
 it was in unison with the man; it was, in fact, remark- 
 ably so; but it was so entirely out of the common — 
 so free-handed and virile. His father had been minister 
 
 41 
 
42 Samuel Chapman Ai-mstirongf 
 
 of public instruction at Hawaii. The son accompanied 
 him on his official tours and had been let into the 
 business. He could manage a boat in a storm, teach 
 school, edit a newspaper, assist in carrying on a govern- 
 ment, take up a mechanical industry at will, under- 
 stand the natives, sympathize with missionaries, talk 
 with profound theorists, recite well in Greek or mathe- 
 matics, conduct an advanced class in geometry, and 
 make no end of fun for little children. In short, he 
 was a striking illustration of the Robinson Crusoe-hke 
 multiformity of function that grows up perforce under 
 the necessities of a missionary station. New England 
 energy, oceanic breeziness, missionary environment, 
 disclosed themselves in him. Such was Armstrong 
 as he came into my life, bringing his ozone with him. 
 
 "Armstrong gravitated to Williams College by 
 social law; it was the resort for missionaries' sons; 
 there was the haystack at which the missionary enter- 
 prise was started; it was a kind of sacred idol, a rendez- 
 vous for spiritual knights-errant, and Armstrong, 
 though not very spiritual, was a knight-errant to the 
 core. Like other missionaries' sons, he poked fun at 
 the natives and entertained small circles with the 
 ridiculous phases of missionary life; yet he was a kind 
 of missionary in disguise, always ready to go out of 
 his way for the purpose of slyly helping somebody up 
 to a better moral or physical plane. His 'plumb 
 survigrousness ' gave him an eternal effervescence; in 
 fact, his body was a kind of catapult for his mind; it 
 was forever projecting his mental force in some direction 
 so that he was continually carrying on intellectual 
 'high jinks' — going off into extravaganzas, throwing 
 every subject into grotesque light; as a result, he was 
 never serious, though always earnest. He took to 
 Williams College as to a natural habitat; he lifted up 
 
"Williams College. J 860- 1862 43 
 
 his 'plumb survigrous' voice and made intellectual 
 pandemonium at the dinner table. 
 
 "He was a trifle above middle height, broad- 
 shouldered, with large, well -poised head, forehead high 
 and wide, deep-set flashing eyes, a long mane of light- 
 brown hair, his face very brown and sailor-like. He 
 bore his head high and carried about an air of insolent 
 good health. He was unconventional in his notions, 
 Shaksperean in sympathy, and wished to see all sides of 
 life, yet he never formed affiliations with the bad side. 
 If he touched pitch, he got rid of it as soon as he could 
 — pleasantly if possible, but at all events decidedly; he 
 had a robust habit of will, and laid hold always of the 
 best in his environment. 
 
 "Intellectually he was a leader. Spiritually he was 
 religious, with a deep reverence for his father's life 
 and work. . . . Yet all felt him to be under great 
 terrestrial headway. Sometimes he seemed to have 
 little respect for the spiritual ; he shocked people by his 
 levity and irreverance. Yet there was about him at all 
 times a profound reverence of spirit for God, manhood, 
 womanhood, and all sacred realities. Indeed, with him 
 reverence and religion alike were matters not of form, 
 but of inward principle whose application he had not 
 yet mastered. OtJier_jm^n^ were_^riginal-jJiJhQug^ 
 he was originaLincharacter ; but above all there was an 
 "immediacy of nature. His~~greateit~Ieridency seerfied 
 to be to go ahead; he has, in fact, often reminded me of 
 Harry Wadsworth, the hero of E. E. Hale's 'Ten 
 Times One is Ten.' He was the most strenuous man 
 I ever saw. Naturally he was a problem to us — what 
 would he come to? Doctor Arnold said of himself: 
 'Aut Caesar, aut nullus.' Armstrong said of himself: 
 'Missionary or pirate.' " * 
 
 *Dr. John Denison in Atlantic Monthly, February, 1894. 
 
44 Samuel Chapman Afmstfong 
 
 The college world in which Armstrong found 
 himself during the eighteen months of his stay in 
 Williamstown was a different one from that of 
 to-day. The years of conflict from 1861 to 1865 
 brought about a more radical divergence of student 
 ideals and customs than the twenty between 1870 
 and 1890, for the war, breaking the barriers 
 between East and West and North and South, 
 introducing the resources of the coimtry to the 
 men who were able to handle them, enlarged the 
 scope of college as of national life. This ante- 
 bellum college world was a very little one, in which 
 a kind of family life was possible ; in it men met 
 their social equals and few besides; the distinctions 
 between rich and poor were not emphasized as 
 now by luxurious apartments for the well-to-do 
 and the plainest of dormitories or boarding-houses 
 for the men who have to work their way. Less 
 cosmopolitan, surely, the old way, but more 
 companionable . 
 
 In such a setting individual characters stood 
 clearly defined and single voices could be heard. 
 More regard was given to the teacher than to the 
 laboratory. Garfield's definition of a good college 
 as "a log with Doctor Hopkins sitting on one end 
 and a student on the other," was the standard of 
 academic worth. So Armstrong was sent, not so 
 much to Williams College, as to be under Doctor 
 Hopkins, for Doctor Hopkins was the college. 
 
 Armstrong saw nothing of him, however, during 
 
Williams College. J860-J862 45 
 
 the first three months of his stay at Williamstown. 
 His impressions at first were mainly of cold weather 
 and social stiffness. When he first arrived the 
 long winter vacation had begun, and in addition 
 to the dreariness of ice and snow everywhere, the 
 place seemed to him solemn and deserted. He chose 
 a temporary lodging-place and settled himself to 
 study and make what he could otherwise out of 
 this place, more suited, he thought, to a New England 
 anchorite than to a hot-blooded young fellow from 
 the tropics. No sv/imming, no riding, no sailing, 
 no flirting even; yet a man cannot study all the 
 time ! No wonder the scenery moved him to 
 ridicule and the society to homesickness. 
 
 In a home letter written December 14, i860, 
 he says : 
 
 "Williamstown is shockingly lonely. It Is, you 
 know, the early part of the long winter vacation now. 
 I suspect that they keep the girls tied up or that they 
 stay abed all the while, it's so cold; I have seen but 
 a few girls and only three or four squads of urchins 
 sliding down hill. The girls sometimes slide, and they 
 look really pretty as they kneel on the sled, catch the 
 boys' shoulders and 'scoot' away like fairies. 
 
 "The mountains here are nothing more than Nature's 
 warts, little stuck-up hills that you could cross in an 
 hour on a donkey going backward faster than forward. 
 
 "Well, I'm in a very nice room, at a desk with a 
 kerosene lamp, and a stove fire just behind me, about 
 ten o'clock p.m. 
 
 "I showed my old lady yours and Ellen's drawings; 
 
4^ Samwel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 she thought that 'people can get educated there as 
 well as here.' The floor is carpeted and the room is 
 papered. 
 
 "The snow lies a foot deep — weather awfully cold; 
 two below zero to-day. I'll tell you why to-day has 
 been a very peculiar and strange one to me. First, I 
 finished my Greek studies. I've read steadily some 
 seven or nin^ hours every day for ten days (Sundays 
 excepted) in Demosthenes — enough to have used me 
 clean up at the islands, but I don't mind it at all here. 
 I feel free, as the hardest is over. You see, the term 
 was out a little after I arrived in New York, and I 
 have to do in four or five weeks all the work of the 
 last term and considerable of the previous in Sopho- 
 more year. The work is over and I breathe freely. 
 
 "Secondly, I had a letter from J [a sister]; she is 
 
 doing well; letters, you know, are precious to the exile. 
 
 "Thirdly, I had my first sleigh ride! I hired a 
 sleigh and invited a student to go with me; but I had 
 to rub my ears to keep them from freezing — more 
 work than fim. 
 
 "Fourthly, as I was reading the peroration of Demos- 
 thenes' Oration on the Crown, little George C 
 
 brought me a letter in Will's handwriting. I opened 
 it and was surprised to see the delicate handwriting 
 inside. I wondered again, and just then saw 'Stone 
 House, ' and soon I knew it was from you, and with 
 an intensity of interest that you haven't the remotest 
 idea of I devoured its contents." 
 
 At last the loth of January came and the term 
 began. He moved from his room in the lodging- 
 house to the college dormitory, whence he writes 
 as follows: 
 
"Williams College. i&60-iS62 47 
 
 " WiLLiAMSTOWN, January 10, 1861. 
 
 "I have left Mrs. C 's and room now in 13 East 
 
 College. We are on the ground floor, and here is a plan 
 of the room. The floor is carpeted plainly and the 
 walls are papered; just behind the sociable hangs the 
 'Court of Death,' and other pictures hang around the 
 room — one a most exquisite gem, 'Christ of the Cross'; 
 it is small but rare. I'll get one and send it home if I 
 can. We have cozy little bedrooms, about two-thirds 
 as large as our spare room at home. My bedroom is 
 nicely carpeted. I have a fine iron bedstead and good 
 bedding. The large room was furnished when I came, 
 so that I only had to fit up my bedroom, which I did 
 at a cost of some $15, including a desk and a chair. 
 Bedding is very expensive, and quantities are necessary 
 in this weather. At six a. m. a bell rings; in about 
 thirty minutes a fellow comes in and lights our fire 
 (we sleep in a cold room all night) , and when the second 
 bell, at seven, rings I jump up, sponge all over with 
 biting cold water — this makes me feel fine — dress and 
 hurry off to breakfast at Hosford's, about half a mile 
 distant, where I get board at $2 per week. 
 
 "At nine we attend prayers in the chapel. . . . 
 After that Sam Alexander and I go to the gymnasium 
 and have a 'set-to' with the boxing-gloves for exercise, 
 and then I go to my room and study mechanics, which 
 is a little tough, especially Jackson's Mechanics. At 
 eleven we attend recitation in mechanics to Professor 
 Albert Hopkins twenty or thirty minutes; then return 
 to our rooms till twelve and then go to dinner; return 
 at one p. m., always stopping at the post-oflice on the 
 way, as we do also when we go to breakfast, and are too 
 often disappointed. We then study our Latin, Tacitus, 
 and recite to Professor Smith. After that we have 
 evening prayers, always conducted by the president, 
 
48 Samuel Chapman Atmstrong 
 
 and from prayers march to supper. The evening is 
 then before us, for study or otherwise. On Wednesday 
 and Saturday p. m. there are no recitations. 
 
 "Our class numbers some fifty-two fellows and is a 
 mixture of very fine and very poor students. Those 
 with the best memories succeed the best generally, 
 though not always; study and not thought seems to be 
 the aim of college exercises. I'm now beginning to 
 feel a little at home in Williamstown, but don't entirely 
 like this cold weather. For a few days it was bitterly 
 cold and I suffered a little, but it has now moderated 
 and for a few days the climate has been most exhilarat- 
 ing. I never felt better in my life than I do now. The 
 snow is very deep, deeper than for many years before, 
 and when a thaw comes there will be awful slush. 
 
 "So now you know what I am about. I'd write you 
 a longer letter if there was anything to write about; 
 and, moreover, I haven't the time to write that I had 
 in vacation." 
 
 In the following speaks the philosopher: 
 
 "Don't let your health suffer. Ellen writes me that 
 you look 'careworn,' and I know you must be lonely; 
 but there are 'living waters' to refresh us and sweet 
 voices from a better land. ... I hope the girls 
 get a chance to ride horseback occasionally. I should 
 be sorry to learn that you don't get your accustomed 
 rides or that Major is either ill-behaved or lean. There 
 is only one thing that will keep you up at home and 
 that is cheerfulness; you must secure that at all events; 
 if necessary, fill the house with cats from top to bottom, 
 tie a dog to every lilac, and place monkeys in every 
 tree; at any rate, keep cheerful. There is no use in 
 melancholy, and there is a fascination in melancholy 
 
"Williams College. J860-J862 49 
 
 which is dangerous — it is Hke the serpent's insidious 
 charm ; it wears the Hfe away. 
 
 "I found it quite hard to study at first; the past 
 would flash vividly over me and I could not apply my 
 mind. I'm doing well now, however. I found a pleasure 
 in reviewing those sad days of gloom, and found, too, 
 that much of my retrospection did me no good — it was 
 like a stimulant." 
 
 During the winter he had formed a pleasant 
 acquaintance with a son * of the President and in 
 March was invited to share his room in Doctor 
 Hopkins's house. He gladly accepted this invi- 
 tation, having conceived a strong admiration for his 
 president. 
 
 "Doctor Hopkins," he said, "is a noble man in the 
 
 highest sense of the word; I never saw his equal; he is 
 
 essentially a man of power, and combines the highest 
 
 traits of character." 
 
 > 
 
 So began a lifelong friendship with both the 
 father and son. 
 
 His new situation in a home-life relieved the 
 sense of loneliness which Armstrong had felt ever 
 since coming to college and greatly broadened his 
 social horizon; it was of no slight importance to 
 him to see something of the ways of the cultivated 
 New England people he met in the families of the 
 President and the college professors. He began 
 to broaden his student acquaintance, and made the 
 
 *Archibald Hopkins. 
 
so Samoel Chapman Afmstrongf 
 
 discovery that good clothes and presentable man- 
 ners are valuable assets. 
 
 "When a man's history is not known, dress has a great 
 deal to do with his position ; when he is once thoroughly 
 known, dress is a small matter. With two-thirds of 
 the fellows in college style in dress is nothing, and as 
 for them I could dress anyhow, but the other third care 
 much about fashion and are 3''et smart, fine and polished 
 fellows — their society gives a man polish. While in 
 college I wish to be dressed as well as the best. I find 
 it pleasanter to be received as an equal than to be 
 looked upon as out of my place when I meet with the 
 well-dressed of New York or even of Williamstown." 
 
 He joined no college society, saying: 
 
 "In college I belong to no secret society and must 
 rely on my own merit for getting friends; when one 
 joins a secret society all in it are his sworn friends, 
 right or wrong; this is childish." 
 
 He keenly enjoyed this new-found social life, 
 but it never made him forget the bereaved mother 
 and sisters at home. He calls his pleasures to 
 account for themselves in the form of some perma- 
 nent good: 
 
 "It is hardly right for me to be so singularly blest 
 and so gay while you are still bleeding from the direst 
 wound that you ever felt. This means something — 
 God has not done all this to me for nothing. I wonder 
 what He would teach bv this." 
 
"Williams College. J 860- J 862 51 
 
 Meditating seriously upon the future, he writes 
 at about the same time: 
 
 "WiLLiAMSTowN, March 30, 1861, 
 "Just now there is considerable religious interest 
 in college, and I think I have become a better Christian 
 than I used to be. I look forward with joy to a life 
 of doing good, and if my native land should present the 
 strongest claims to me I should be willing and glad to 
 go there. My aim is to study for the ministry, but yet 
 I hesitate to take the solemn vows — the responsibility 
 is so awful. Besides, I may not have the means to study 
 that profession or any other. If the plantation pays 
 well I may be aided by that — in about a year from 
 now this question will become a serious one. I believe 
 the means will come from somewhere, and if they don't 
 I'll begin to suspect that Providence doesn't design 
 me for clerical duties. Baxter [his brother] used to say 
 that none of our family would make good ministers; 
 if he feels that about my choice, tell him that I mean 
 to have good times after all and not to look like a 
 galvanized mummy. Tell him to save me one of his 
 finest colts — I may need it in about four years." 
 
 War excitement touched him in the spring vaca- 
 tion of 1 86 1. April 20th he wrote from New York: 
 
 "It is no easy thing to compose oneself at this 
 time. War is the only thing talked about, and almost 
 the only thing done is getting up regiments and making 
 uniforms, etc., for the soldiers. Thousands wear 
 badges of one kind and another on their breast, indi- 
 cating the allegiance to the flag. The infants in the 
 nurses' arms hold in their tiny hands the Stars and 
 
52 Samael Chapman Atmstfongf 
 
 Stripes, and small boys stick little flags all over them- 
 selves; the drays and carts of all descriptions display 
 the Union flag, and in every imaginable place the star- 
 spangled banner is 'flung to the breeze.' The appear- 
 ance of Broadway and Cortlandt Street is magnificent 
 from the profusion of bunting hung out of the windows. 
 "The excitement is extraordinary; since the Seventh 
 Regiment left, the New Yorkers have taken and will 
 take the deepest interest in the war. The departure 
 of the Seventh was a magnificent triumph; never did 
 the Caesars have such an ovation; handkerchiefs moist- 
 ened with tears were waved at them — one great surge 
 of applause rolled down Broadway and continued for 
 hours. The regiment looked splendidly. Scarcely a 
 lady of the higher circles of this city but has a friend 
 there — some of them have many; there are lovers 
 and brothers and bridegrooms in the regiment. It is 
 awful to think of the amount of happiness that is staked 
 upon the petted Seventh. Hundreds of the noblest 
 hearts will bleed or brighten as those fellows fall or 
 survive. No one doubts their courage." 
 
 He was present at the great patriotic meeting in 
 Union Square, New York, where a quarter of a 
 million of persons were gathered, and v^here Major 
 Anderson's speech roused the people to white heat. 
 
 "I shall go to the war if I am needed, but not till 
 then; were I an American, as I am a Hawaiian, I should 
 be off in a hurry. Next term it will be hard to remain 
 at Williamstown, and harder yet to study." 
 
 But ere long lack of money took him back to 
 Williamstown. He continues: 
 
Williams College. J860-J862 53 
 
 " I might say here that I really got tired of New York 
 City after being there nine days — one fact, however, 
 is that I couldn't afford to visit the opera and theater; 
 and I don't get any horseback rides — that is too bad, 
 'but I must grin and bear it' ! I hope to get a swim in 
 a month or two. In this miserable hole one can go into 
 the stream only three months in the year ! Not before 
 the 4th of July." 
 
 The chary Berkshire spring passed and full sum- 
 mer came. 
 
 "But it is almost June and we are wearing our winter 
 clothing and sit by fires. Many fellows, having burned 
 up all their wood, are determined not to buy any more 
 and so have to shiver through. Our stove has been 
 taken down, and I have to wrap up to keep warm enough 
 to study comfortably. It is the very meanest kind of 
 weather — the worst spring that anybody ever knew 
 here, and the farmers are almost discouraged. 
 
 "We see the sun now and then from week to week 
 and everybody runs to see it when they get a chance. 
 I can't stand many of these New England winters, and 
 just now long for the trade winds, clear skies, mountains, 
 the ocean, and a ride on horseback. A ride here costs 
 fifty cents, but the nags are a sorry-looking set and can 
 only trot, and the ladies as well as gentlemen do nothing 
 but trot, with a few exceptions. 
 
 "I have begun to dig in the garden this term, and 
 when it doesn't rain I get up before breakfast and spade 
 up flower beds, etc. I have one large flower bed all to 
 myself — but the rainstorms interfere sadly with this 
 plan. I am having an easy time now, I study my 
 lessons only about two and a half hours a day, and on 
 Wednesday have only one recitation and on Saturday 
 
54 Sarawel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 none. But I study practical astronomy besides — that is, 
 I go down to the observatory when it is clear and look 
 at the stars. It takes up my evenings to a great extent, 
 but I don't recite to any one. After this, till I gradu- 
 ate, I shall only have two recitations a day, except on 
 Wednesdays and Saturdays, when there is only one." 
 
 An occasional word gives a glimpse of the opinions 
 then prevalent concerning the course of the war. 
 
 "There is one feeling that you need not now be 
 troubled with — that is, longing to come to the States. 
 The Southerners are desperate now, and are bound to 
 ruin northern commerce. "Within three or four months 
 from to-day, I suppose, the southern privateers will 
 be hovering about the California coast and the packets 
 to and from the islands will be in danger; and the 
 steamers on their way to Panama and up this side 
 will be liable to capture or a hard fight. Still, they 
 are pretty formidable and can't be easily caught. The 
 war will afford but little chance for a young lady here 
 to get married, and those that stay here will most 
 likely become spinsters. 
 
 "I haven't told you, I guess, that the students are 
 all drilling in military maneuvers. Each class is 
 formed into a company and drills once or twice a day — 
 it's good fun. We sent to Governor Andrew for 
 muskets, but he won't let us have any at present. 
 There is nothing going on just now. Politics and war 
 matters are progressing steadily, but let me assure you 
 that you probably entirely misunderstand the state 
 of things. The excitement is not nearly as intense 
 as you imagine, and naturally so. The reason of this 
 is, we keep up with events; every day we get the news, 
 and so it comes in small driblets; we expect everything 
 
Williams College. JS60-J862 55 
 
 before it happens and know it within a few hours after 
 it has happened. You get the news in gre^t masses — 
 the news of six or eight weeks in one lump, and you 
 think the world is coming to an end, imagine all kinds 
 of horrible things, while we are entirely cool and calm. 
 Now and then a big excitement comes up and lasts a 
 day or so and dies out; there will be fighting soon, I 
 guess and hope, but the South cannot conquer and the 
 North can. 
 
 "I board now at Charity ville, and we walk four 
 miles a day in going to and from our meals. There 
 are eighteen fellows there, comprising the smartest 
 fellows in the Senior class, and we have high times. 
 I never sat at a merrier table. The living is plain but 
 neat. I pay $2 per week. I tell you all this is good 
 maoli* The summer term of Junior year here is the 
 most luxurious in college; the best studies — or rather 
 the most interesting — and having, as I do, such a 
 splendid home and such kind friends, it almost seems 
 as if I had nothing more to ask for. This is almost a 
 'Happy Valley' (yet I owe the barber for cutting my 
 hair and can't pay him for a while yet; the bulldogs of 
 poverty have just now got me foul)." 
 
 As the summer of 1861 approached, Armstrong 
 began to feel the reaction from the winter of hard 
 study and a stimulating climate, following as they 
 did hard upon his taxing labors in Honolulu and 
 the death of his father. He complained during 
 the winter just passed of headache and fatigue, 
 and, as soon as his engagements would permit, 
 started with several other young Hawaiians on a 
 walking trip to the Adirondacks. 
 
 * Exceedingly. 
 
$6 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 A series of letters sent home from this trip reveal 
 Armstrong as the sportsman, a role he played with 
 poor grace ; one can see the quizzical eye with which 
 he regards the deer and the fish as they evade his 
 attempts to kill. 
 
 "I spent a week at Racket Lake, boarding with 
 
 Madam W at the reduced fare of $2 per week 
 
 for everything, lodging included. Time flew rather 
 slowly sometimes, but there I read Harper's Magazine and 
 'Sam Slick,' and went fishing, too, now and then. 
 It makes me feel riled, sarcastic, cruel and almost like 
 crying when I think of those pesky fish. One afternoon 
 I pulled a clumsy boat, containing a consumptive 
 gentleman besides myself, the distance of twelve miles 
 to and from a famous fishing-hole, and I caught two 
 insignificant trout — one for every six miles. Another 
 time, indeed twice, I fished for lake trout under a 
 scorching sun some three hours, and caught — nothing ! 
 At times I felt furious; occasionally it seemed like a 
 good joke, and now and then I would moralize as my 
 neglected hook lay beneath the glassy waters. Did it 
 indicate that suasion was not my forte? It certainly 
 showed that fishing wasn't, and fishing is only an appeal 
 to the highest faculties of fishes. 
 
 "I vainly endeavored to guess the secret cause of 
 my bad luck, whether it was physical or metaphysical, 
 whether it was fate or fortune that so blighted my 
 hopes. I especially noticed that all who were with me 
 shared in my misfortunes, and I really suspect that 
 had I lived in the days of the blue laws, etc., I should 
 have been burned for witchcraft or fishcraft. And 
 now to all fishing I say a long farewell. It's of no 
 use — none whatever — I can't do it; and my only con- 
 
"Williams College, 1860- J 862 57 
 
 solation is that if a treacherous tempest shall ever 
 consign me to fellowship with the finny and scaly 
 tribes they will probably not injure one who never did 
 them any harm. Henceforth there shall be no inter- 
 course between me and fishes — the world is wide enough 
 for us all. 
 
 "Twice I went 'floating' for deer; the first time I 
 only heard a deer in the distance — the next time I saw 
 one. I saw his flashing eyeballs afar off in the darkness. 
 I took a nervous aim at the lustrous orbs, fired, and off 
 he bounded, doubtless singing to himself that little 
 ditty, 'A rig-a-jig-jig and away we go !' " 
 
 The opening of his Senior year in college found 
 Samuel Armstrong again in Williamstown, eager to 
 enter upon the interesting course of study presented. 
 Although he had an intimate personal acquaintance 
 with Doctor Hopkins, he had never yet come under 
 his direct instruction. Now for nine hours weekly 
 he sat beneath that great teacher. Mark Hopkins 
 was equally a metaphysician and a moralist; he 
 never let slip opportunities to enforce on his pupils 
 the homely everyday applications of the great 
 truths that they were apprehending; his philosophy 
 has been called the " philosophy of common sense. " 
 Yet even more than a thinker and a doer he was a 
 believer. 
 
 "None of the members of the class of 1862," wrote a 
 classmate of Armstrong, "could ever forget the calm 
 but earnest words in which he repudiated Hamilton's 
 statement that ' faith is the organ by which we apprehend 
 
58 Samwel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 what is beyond our knowledge.' Faith to him was 
 the trust of the soul reposed in a person."* 
 
 In the class-room the air was electric with thought. 
 Doctor Hopkins encouraged the free asking of 
 questions and never hesitated to make a point by 
 means of a good story. Armstrong "reveled in 
 the class-room discussions," says Doctor Denison. 
 "He bristled with arguments and swarmed wdth 
 new ideas." The opportimities which he was 
 having impressed him deeply. 
 
 "The coming year is fraught with responsibility and 
 yet pleasure — it must tell heavily on our after lives; 
 such opportunities never come twice; we are treated 
 like and feel like men now, and must qmt ourselves 
 like men. Soon the greatest mind in New England 
 will take and train us. All our study consists of reading; 
 we hardly commit anything to memory. 
 
 "I'll tell you how I study my lessons. My chum 
 takes up Hamilton's Metaphysics and reads it aloud. 
 I take my arm-chair or the lounge and listen to him. 
 In less than an hour he is through and I am ready for 
 recitations — that is all the preparation I have, and we 
 only recite twice a day." 
 
 In those days a good memory was not only 
 desirable, but necessary, in order to pass the final 
 college examinations. He writes, describing the 
 customary test at the close of the Senior year: 
 
 "The examination was oral and public. Doctoi 
 Davis and all the professors were there, and some 
 
 *"Life of Mark Hopkins," by Dr. Franklin Carter. 
 
Williams College. J860-J862 59 
 
 others. We were called to the floor to answer questions, 
 and for two days we sat eight hours per day on hard 
 benches. It was severe work to endure all this and 
 have the contents of the seventeen books in our heads 
 at the same time." 
 
 Besides the opportunity to study under Doctor 
 Hopkins's leadership, his Senior year brought 
 new social pleasures. No elective system divided 
 the classes, and with the constant companionship 
 grew up a passionate loyalty to class and college. 
 The Senior year was a "perfect festival" and 
 Williams queen among colleges. 
 
 He joined and became president of a debating 
 society, and took part in the discussions of 
 another and became vice-president of a theo- 
 logical society.* More and more he grew to 
 enjoy the quiet beauty of Williamstown, seated 
 among the hills, with her elm-bordered streets 
 and air of academic retirement. After his usual 
 vacation visit to New York in the spring of 
 1862 he wrote: 
 
 "I do not hesitate to say that its [New York's] tend- 
 ency is demoralising — lost as one is in the great 
 throng, he feels like an atom, of no particular account, 
 and loses by degrees that sense of responsibility to 
 God which gives tone and character to life. I like 
 New York exceedingly, but am afraid to make it my 
 permanent home." 
 
 *Having for its aim the discussion of practical missionary 
 ■work. 
 
6o Samuel Chapman Atmstfong 
 
 During this vacation and the one following he 
 began to feel more keenly the excitement of war 
 which was thrilling the country, and the spring of 
 1862 marked both the opening of his active career 
 as a soldier and the close of the peaceful episode 
 of Williamstown life. 
 
 Scarcely two years had elapsed since he had gone 
 there, but already he had received many of the most 
 forcible and permanent impressions of his life. 
 " Whatever good teaching I have done has been Mark 
 Hopkins teaching through me," he said in later 
 years; and it was evident that the characteristic 
 mental and moral attitude of the teacher was truly 
 reflected in his pupil. Mark Hopkins had a strong 
 influence in confirming the natural tendency of 
 his mind toward a philosophical view of life, but 
 no follower of that sturdy thinker ever allowed a 
 barren philosophy to sap his interest in every-day 
 affairs. His philosophy was rather of the sort 
 that enabled him to bear discouragements with 
 cheerfulness, to meet obstacles with unfailing 
 resources, and to depend on no man's strength but 
 his own in time of need. 
 
 Armstrong was indebted to Doctor Hopkins, too, 
 for the development of a deep and genuine religious 
 feeling. His boyish letters are tinged with a con- 
 ventionally pious tone, but from this time on the 
 references to spiritual and religious matters are 
 more truly utterances of original thought and feeling : 
 perhaps this change was due in part to the fact 
 
Williams College. J 860- J 862 6i 
 
 that about the middle of his college course he 
 definitely gave up his project of entering the minis- 
 try; imder the influence of Doctor Hopkins's large 
 and generous attitude toward life he became an 
 honester, simpler man, more modest about his 
 present attainment and more ambitious for the 
 future. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 Life in the Army. 1862-1865 
 
 Examinations were over and college honors 
 assigned — to Armstrong the "Ethical Oration"; 
 class-day was past, with its absorbing interests 
 of dance and the supper, when "every man told 
 faithfully whether he was engaged or in love," 
 and the last farewells were spoken under the elms 
 while the morning sun streamed down, finding 
 every good fellow in "floods of tears." College 
 life ended, he returned to New York to await what- 
 ever destiny had in store for him. 
 
 For weeks the military situation had been grow- 
 ing more serious. McClellan had met the Confed- 
 erates in two battles — Fair Oaks on May 31st and 
 Gaines's Mills on Jime 30th — and the Union Army 
 had suffered severe defeats. But McClellan laid 
 all disaster to insufficient support from headquarters, 
 and demanded from Lincoln always more and 
 more troops, intimating that if he had had a larger 
 force these defeats would have been victories. 
 Ready to give his generals every chance for success, 
 Lincoln issued a call for troops. The cotintry 
 responded, "We are coming. Father Abraham, 
 
 62 
 
Life in the Afmy. 1862-1865 63 
 
 three hundred thousand strong," and recruiting 
 went forward briskly. 
 
 Armstrong still considered Hawaii as his father- 
 land and did not share the burning patriotism of 
 the times ; neither did he evince any special interest 
 in the cause of the slave; though before long 
 the constant presence of danger made him appre- 
 ciate the need of the sustaining power of a moral 
 principle and fostered in him both hatred of slavery 
 and love of his adopted country — still the road to 
 enlistment in the army was an easy one for him; 
 his friends and classmates had already entered 
 upon it, public opinion was urgent, and his own 
 temperament inclined toward the soldier's life. 
 He expected at first no more than a place in the 
 ranks, but yielding to the representations of his 
 friends, who assured him that few volunteer officers 
 were well versed in tactics before enlisting and 
 that educated men were much needed as officers, 
 he decided to accept a commission. The first steps 
 were soon taken. A hint from a classmate to the 
 effect that he had a good chance of success in Troy, 
 New York, determined him to go to that city, where 
 a regiment was being raised to be commanded by 
 Colonel Willard, a regular officer of high standing. 
 In Troy, therefore, he built a shanty on one of the 
 public squares and began, unknown as he was, to 
 enlist men for a company of which he was to be 
 captain. His methods were successful enough to 
 enable him to complete the required quota before 
 
64 Samuel Chapman Atmstrong 
 
 his competitors, and he was sworn in as senior 
 captain. 
 
 Thus the metamorphosis of collegian into soldier 
 was accomplished. As he studied philosophy, so 
 he studied tactics and soldiering, with the assist- 
 ance of Colonel Willard, who interested himself in 
 the yoimg Hawaiian and gave him much advice in 
 organizing and drilling his men. It was a thoroughly 
 congenial life, which he described in a letter to his 
 mother. Who cannot pictxire the writer in his 
 soldier's clothes filled with the zest of living? 
 
 "Headquarters Rensselaer County Regiment, 
 
 " August 9, 1862. 
 
 "I am in sole charge of a regiment of men! The 
 regiment is not yet completed by far, but I am officer 
 of the day; the adjutant and colonel have left. It is 
 nine o'clock p.m., and I am in command. I am Captain 
 Armstrong; not yet commissioned, but hope to be 
 when my company is filled up. I have now some fifty- 
 odd men — eighty-three is the minimum. I am seated 
 in the commander's tent; my chair rests on the ground; 
 I write by the light of a lantern. I have on a sword and 
 sash and military overcoat. The tents stretch across 
 the field at a little distance and look beautiful. This 
 is strange enough for me. I have secured my position 
 by the fairest means. Such a life I never led before — 
 how this recruiting business lets one into human nature 
 — it is the best school I ever had. 
 
 "We put up a little wooden shanty on Washington 
 Square, Troy. Had a large sign painted on canvas 
 and stuck up; scattered our posters around and went 
 to work recruiting men. We have met the very meanest 
 
Life in the Army. J 862- J 865 65 
 
 and the very best of men; some enhst for money and 
 some for love of country. Sometimes men of means 
 and of family come forward nobly and enter the ranks 
 as privates. 
 
 "I have the most respectable company by far. I 
 have several fellows of sound principle from the Sabbath- 
 fichools in this city, and intelligent, good men have 
 heard of my company from some distance and come 
 to join it. At this very moment (two o'clock Sunday 
 morning) one of my men has been brought to camp 
 from the city drunk, and is singing in the guard-house 
 in the most comical manner. 
 
 "I shall soon have to go on the 'grand rounds' with 
 a sergeant and two privates — i.e., visit all the stations. 
 I have just given out a new countersign. 
 
 "The night is a charming one; the moonlight is 
 exquisite, and lies sweetly and softly on the Hudson 
 River, on whose bank is our camp. I now feel quite 
 wide awake, from being called several times to the 
 stations where riotous fellows were trying to run the 
 guards. 
 
 "We have been treated with great kindness, and I 
 am perfectly satisfied with the real cordial interest 
 which some of the citizens take in us and in me. There 
 are some splendid men in the city — how that fellow in 
 the guard-house is yelling ! I have had no time to go 
 into society at all, and shall not, since as soon as the 
 regiment is filled we shall probably be ordered away to 
 a camp of instruction. 
 
 "The recruiting service brings one in contact with 
 human feelings — no outside is put on to the enlisting 
 officer; mothers beg in tears for him to release their 
 sons; fathers give their assent to their child's going, 
 and with a trembling hand and dimmed eyes sign the 
 boy's release. One father called it signing his son's 
 
66 Samuel Chapman Afmstrong 
 
 death-warrant. Then the Irish women come around 
 and make themselves comical and pathetic by turns. 
 I have lost sleep and flesh in this work, but it is only 
 working off superfluous stuff. I am hearty as a buck; 
 this life agrees with me. I have held numerous patriotic 
 meetings in the country, at places often thirteen miles 
 from Troy. At these meetings good speakers are 
 present and vve often succeed in getting men after the 
 speeches. I seldom get back from these meetings till 
 one o'clock in the morning. 
 
 "To-night our company holds two meetings. About 
 half were from the Baptist and other Sunday-schools of 
 Troy. They used to call it 'the Sunday-school Company' 
 — boys whom their mothers wished me to take if they 
 mtist go. The rest were another class, large country 
 fellows, farmers from Pittstown and Albia and workmen 
 from the Troy nail factory; a motley crowd of eighty, 
 always infused with fun b}^ the little city fellows, 
 hardly bigger than their own knapsacks." 
 
 On August 30th came the word that the regi- 
 ment was to start for the front. The departure 
 was a dramatic one, with "pretty girls in squads" 
 to say farewell to the soldiers, and shouts and tears 
 from the people as the train moved away. In 
 New York Armstrong was met by his brother, who 
 marched with him and his regiment through the 
 city, and who tells an incident of the day. The 
 regiment had camped in City Hall Park for a rest. 
 "While I sat conversing with him there one of his 
 men came up and said : ' I say, Captain, where can I 
 get a drink of water ? ' He at once started off to get 
 water for him. I said : ' It seems to me that it is not 
 
Life in the Army. J862-J865 67 
 
 very good military discipline for the captain to be 
 nrnning aroiind for water for his men.' He replied: 
 * The men must have water. I'm bound to see that 
 they get it.' " 
 
 After leaving New York the regiment continued 
 its inspiring progress, sailing through the North 
 River, with rows of gaily dressed ladies on the 
 banks waving handkerchiefs and flags, to the 
 Eastern & Amboy Railroad, where they took a 
 train to Philadelphia. Feted and fed gloriously 
 there, they moved on to Baltimore. 
 
 "The rest of our journey lay through Maryland. But 
 first, about our transportation. The regiment was 
 closely packed in twenty-six cars, forty men in a car — 
 not passenger cars, but close boxes, each containing 
 three long, frail benches made of rough boards. We 
 rode day and night, and, being packed like sheep, there 
 was no lying down, except on the floor, which was 
 thickly covered with coal dust and dirt. 
 
 "We finally reached Point of Rocks, the first place 
 where we could at all realize the war; here, as at every 
 other point we stopped at along the road, the men 
 jumped from the cars in swarms and devoured every 
 mouthful of bread or any other eatable the neighbor- 
 hood could furnish and that money could procure. 
 From Point of Rocks we rode to Harper's Ferry, and 
 thence to Martinsburg, Virginia, which we reached 
 September 2d, the most advanced point of the Federal 
 lines and one which should be held only by the most 
 experienced troops. Here we began camp life in 
 earnest." 
 
68 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 Martinsburg was a small town on the Baltimore & 
 Ohio Railroad, about a day's march from Harper's 
 Ferry toward the northwest. It was, as Armstrong 
 says, an advanced post. The main body of the 
 army had been withdrawn, after the bitter defeat 
 at the second battle of Bull Rim, to the fortifica- 
 tions about Washington, where a shift of com- 
 manders was made, Pope being replaced by 
 McClellan, though a few regiments were scattered 
 here and there throughout the State for protection 
 and defense. Of these the One Hundred and 
 Twenty-fifth New York was one. It was a trying 
 situation for green troops, with alarms on every 
 hand, their ears kept constantly alive by reports of 
 the startling events which were taking place only a 
 few miles to the north of them. Lee and Jackson, 
 after thrilling Maryland with their daring, were pene- 
 trating into Pennsylvania and seemed to be threaten- 
 ing her very capital. When the One Hundred and 
 Twenty-fifth New York arrived at Martinsburg the 
 men thought that Jackson was close at their rear, 
 though in reality it was not until a week later that 
 Lee detached and sent him southward. 
 
 Thus Armstrong's entrance into military life 
 was at an anxious time. 
 
 "My position taxed my capacities to the utmost. A 
 captain has as much to do as — in fact, he is practically — 
 the father of ninety children. Men in camp, sensible 
 men, lose all their good judgment and almost their good 
 sense; they become puerile, and come to the captain on 
 
Life in the Atmy. J 862- 1 865 69 
 
 a multitude of silly, childish matters. A captain does 
 not only his own, but all the thinking of the company. 
 Well, we drilled at Martinsburg and ate and slept, etc., 
 for a few days quietly, but soon there was a consciousness 
 of peril; whole companies were sent out scouting and 
 on picket duty. The whole 3,000 men there were 
 alive and ready. One night, when I was officer of the 
 day, I tested the efficiency of our guard when they 
 knew the enemy were expected, and I ran the guard 
 five times and seized six men's muskets, rendering 
 them helpless. But I came very near being shot by 
 one guard, and would have been, but he suspected 
 who I was. 
 
 "At Martinsburg we considered ourselves as bagged; 
 we were shut out from all communication with our 
 friends, and Jackson was supposed to be in the rear. 
 We lived among alarms. An old farmer came to water 
 his horses near to where one of the pickets was standing 
 — thirty hostile cavalry were reported in sight — the 
 regiment was called to arms — there was mounting in 
 hot haste and some cheeks grew pale. Three companies 
 started off on double-quick after the old farmer and his 
 horse. Having scoured the neighbourhood when it was 
 morally certain from the cavalry scouts that no enemy 
 was within ten miles, the companies returned — they 
 took a new track and a report came that 1,000 of the 
 enemy were upon us. We were ordered out again — a 
 long rifle-pit was dug — some were almost wild and some 
 were sick." 
 
 As Lee moved northward he f otmd that he would be 
 unable to live on the country as he had hoped, and 
 began to consider how he should open a way through 
 the Shenandoah Valley to his base of supplies. 
 
70 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 The way was clear except for one post, Harper's 
 Ferry, which was still held by Union troops, though 
 by all the rules of war it should have abandoned 
 because of its situation in a hostile country. 
 To capture this solitary stronghold, therefore, 
 Lee despatched Stonewall Jackson September loth. 
 Jackson's marches were rapid, and by night he was 
 close on Harper's Ferry. All the troops available 
 were thrown in to defend it, and among them the 
 One Himdred and Twenty-fifth New York was 
 despatched from Martinsburg. Armstrong thus 
 describes the hasty reenf orcement : 
 
 "One night, when deep sleep had fallen upon us, 
 when after a day of wild reports we were just beginning 
 to get refreshed most sweetly, an order came which 
 threw us into the wildest confusion. We were to 
 retreat instanter. Tents were struck — a thousand-and- 
 one articles had to be picked up. Misunderstanding 
 reigned among the commanders, and confusion pre- 
 vailed throughout; such a wild bustle, such a thoroughly 
 disagreeable affair I hope never again to participate in. 
 There was, of course, yelling all the time. Well, finally 
 the knapsacks were packed, the men fell into line, and 
 away we marched at two o'clock a.m., September ii, 
 1862. The men were unused to walking and to carry- 
 ing loads, and within four miles 300 knapsacks were 
 thrown away. The retreat was a wearisome affair 
 and hundreds sat down exhausted by the roadside, not 
 caring what became of them. The men could not be 
 kept in rank; every apple- or plum-tree on or near the 
 road was plundered and every well or spring was drained 
 by dense throngs of thirsty wretches. Order was 
 
Life in the Atmy, J862-J865 71 
 
 turned into disorder, and the regiment, along with 
 others, moved like a herd of driven cattle. Companies 
 scattered and left no nucleus ; a few of us held the main 
 body of our men together; and it was well, for when 
 close upon Harper's Ferry information came that the 
 rebels were in strong force in front, prepared to dispute 
 our advance; only three companies could be brought to 
 bear against them, and mine was one. That time the 
 affair seemed serious, and all looked a little paler. 
 Guns were loaded, all luggage thrown away, and then 
 we stood still as death — a time in which a person thinks 
 like lightning. But there proved to be no enemy, 
 though in twelve hours there were 20,000 rebels where 
 we stood. We inarched from two a.m. till about five 
 P.M., and less than 100 — two skeleton companies — 
 followed Colonel Willard into camp. My company 
 was one of the two. 
 
 "Soon, however, the regiment straggled in, though 
 about 100 men were captured, for the rebel cavalry 
 pressed hard on our rear." 
 
 The story of the surrender of Harper's Ferry is 
 well known. The garrison and reenforcements 
 were cooped up in a basin between Loudoun, Bolivar 
 and Maryland Heights, three towering hills which 
 surround the junction of the Shenandoah and 
 Potomac rivers. No proper fortification of these 
 heights had been made, and the Confederates soon 
 captured them and then stood pouring shot, shell 
 and even musket balls into the Union forces, so 
 close were they to the helpless soldiery below. 
 
 "When the first shell struck," says Armstrong, "the 
 scampering began. The Colonel ordered us off the 
 
72 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 ground at once, and then there was an uproar and a 
 confusion that baffles the imagination; the infantry, 
 cavalry and artillery gathered up their arms and 
 equipage and stampeded like wildfire. The regiment 
 flew to where their arms were stacked, seized them and 
 ran in wild disorder to the nearest ravine for shelter. 
 
 "I saw no signs of order, but in truth I thought of 
 and cared for nothing but my company. By this time 
 the shells from the new battery were falling all around 
 us — their whizzing was terrific. I first rushed to the 
 arms and summoned my men. I then halted them, 
 formed them in two ranks, and had got a large number 
 of them into position when the Colonel came by and 
 ordered me away at once. I started them off and kept 
 in the rear, bringing up and in the later comers, and my 
 men marched off in a body for some distance till I got 
 out of the way into a yard — still, however, exposed to 
 the shell — halted them and re-formed them, waited for 
 stragglers, put things into shape again, and then pushed 
 into the road, which was crowded with flying men, 
 artillery wagons, horses, and everything else. 
 
 "We kept together — I made them keep step — gave 
 three cheers for Company D with a will, and marched 
 down into the ravine and reported to my Colonel, who 
 was trying to rearrange his scattered troops. Mine 
 was about the only company that came off in good order. 
 Captains, lieutenants and higher oflicers 'skedaddled' 
 in a hurry. But there was no safe place in that exposed 
 valley; only a dark cloud that overhung the battery- 
 crowned heights around them the next morning (Sep- 
 tember 15th) prevented a slaughter; and later in the 
 morning, when the mist cleared, the whole force stood 
 helpless under a heavy artillery fire, which lasted two 
 hours before surrender was effected. We took our 
 men to a little ravine and hid them in a little gutter, 
 
Life in the Army. J862-J865 73 
 
 though they were by no means entirely concealed. I 
 stood near the edge of the gutter with my first lieuten- 
 ant, in full view and exposed to the enemy's fire. The 
 shot fell first at a little distance, but soon they edged 
 over toward us; our battery was all the while replying 
 smartly. We were almost between the two and just 
 in front of our own. My company was, I think, the 
 most exposed of all; we were, at any rate, most nearly 
 in range. By this time the firing had become general 
 on every side. Some six batteries of Jackson's artillery 
 were pouring shot and shell into our position, and the 
 shrieking of the missiles as they flew was horrible. 
 One eight-pound shot struck where I had been standing 
 and bounded over me; another passed by me; and now 
 we were assured that we were going to be cut up badly. 
 With my men around me and being conscious of their 
 gaze, I felt calm, and when the shot struck near me I 
 didn't move a muscle, but when we moved to a place 
 of much greater safety and I was sitting in the bushes 
 I felt much more fear of the shells than before. I tell 
 you it is dreadful to be a mark for artillery ; bad enough 
 for any, but especially for raw troops; it demoralizes 
 them — it rouses one's courage to be able to fight in 
 return, but to sit still and calmly be cut in two is too 
 much to ask. 
 
 "Here we remained till a fresh battery was about to 
 rake us through and through, when down went the 
 Stars and Stripes." 
 
 So 12,500 men and much war material fell into 
 the hands of the enemy. The prisoners of war 
 were then marched directly across the field, sub- 
 ject to the continuous fire of a battery which 
 had not yet heard the news of the surrender. 
 
74 Samuel Chapman Atmstfong 
 
 This march under fire, Armstrong said, scared 
 him more than anything else, 
 
 "There we were on the hill, our arms stacked before 
 us and waiting; soon the celebrated 'Stonewall' Jackson 
 rode along our lines with his staff, attended also by 
 our colonel and others. He rode a common-looking, 
 cream-colored horse and was plainly dressed in citizen's 
 clothes — a gray, dingy suit. He wore a hat which his 
 men called his 'new hat,' though it was worn enough. 
 The costumes of his attendants and whole army were 
 dirty and torn, their beards unkempt, hats slouchy, 
 muskets rusty, and they all looked as if a sirocco of red 
 dust had blown over their gray uniforms. The mounted 
 men rode well and looked like brave men. 
 
 "After a while we were marched to our former camping 
 ground and assigned certain limits; to which, however, 
 they did not restrict us. I went down and bathed in 
 the Shenandoah River with Pat Garden, and on the 
 way stopped and chatted a long time with a rebel 
 captain, and, like all the rest, a gentleman. 
 
 "Not a syllable of exultation do we hear from them; 
 and with good reason, perhaps — McClellan's guns had 
 been roaring all day and a huge battle was waging 
 some miles off [Antietam]; there might be a slip 'twixt 
 cup and lip. The rebels deny themselves more than 
 we do; Jackson's men devoured what rations our men 
 had rejected; they also took all of our rations they could; 
 they gnawed bones that lay around our camps; they 
 often had for one day's meal but an ear of com; and 
 when in their march a man falls down from exhaustion 
 he lies there — we pick them up. Hence the celerity of 
 Jackson's movements. Before the last terrible fight 
 at Manassas his whole force moved ninety miles in three 
 days and at the end of the march went right into action. 
 
Life in the Army. J862-J865 75 
 
 The captain told me this. He says, too, that Jackson's 
 soldiers never understood his movements, and don't 
 care to; they 'know he is after the Yankees, will find 
 the Yankees, and can whip them.' 
 
 "We were most civilly treated by the rebels, whom 
 we found to be in truth 'bone of our bone and flesh of 
 our flesh'; men like ourselves; only the rebels were not 
 nearly as profane as our men — in fact, they used no ' 
 profane language at all. They shamed us; they fought, 
 they said, not for money, but for their homes, and 
 wanted the war to cease. 
 
 "Our system of munificent bounties and fine clothing 
 diverts us from the principle for which we are contending 
 and few of us really know what we are fighting for. 
 I felt the want of a clear apprehension of it in the hour 
 of danger. 
 
 "The officers were allowed to carry off their side arms, 
 and all private property was respected; few have been 
 treated as we were. The day passed in pleasant and 
 cordial intercourse with the 'secesh' army; we slept 
 once more on the field, and next morning we were 
 marching off Bolivar Heights to be passed into our 
 own lines. Jackson was very anxious to get us off — in 
 fact, so anxious that he galloped off the day before and 
 left us with his generals. No paroles were signed by 
 us ; we were paroled as a regiment, and even that parole 
 was left incomplete." 
 
 It was customary to place captured regiments 
 on parole near their homes, but the One Hundred 
 and Twenty-fifth was sent with some Illinois troops 
 to Chicago. 
 
 When the plan to separate the men so widely from 
 their homes became known, it caused much dissat- 
 
76 Samttel Chapman Armstfong: 
 
 isf action, and was no doubt responsible for much 
 of the insubordinate spirit shown on the march 
 of one hundred and twenty-three miles to Annapolis, 
 where they were to take the boat to Baltimore on 
 the way to Chicago. It was an eventful time in 
 national affairs, though monotonous and confused 
 enough to the soldiers of the One Hundred and 
 Twenty-fifth New York. During these "laborious 
 wanderings" the battle of Antietam was ended and 
 was followed soon by the Emancipation Proclama- 
 tion, though the news of this event, so fraught 
 with meaning to Armstrong, did not reach the 
 regiment till their arrival at Annapolis. The journal 
 letter continues: 
 
 "The wanderings of Ulysses or of ^neas were more 
 romantic, perhaps, but less laborious than ours. The 
 Scylla and Charybdis of hunger and disease had to be 
 passed every day, for we had nothing to eat but maggoty 
 bacon and hard bread, which Jackson had given us — 
 the best he had — and 10,000 men with such rations, 
 with almost no blankets or overcoats (they were thrown 
 away on the march from Martinsburg to Harper's 
 Ferry), dragging their weary lengths along, devouring 
 green and ripe fruit, gulping down water at every well, 
 and discouraged and demoralized by previous retreat 
 and disaster, were fit victims for some malady. 
 
 "We marched five consecutive days. Of course, it 
 wasn't all dulness. Sometimes our road would lie 
 through a forest, and shade and cool breezes would 
 delight us with relief from the dust which enveloped us. 
 It was a tough job to keep our men in order, and in 
 fact I had it all to do myself for my company; my 
 
Life in the Army. J 862- J 865 77 
 
 orderly took a short cut, my second heutenant kept 
 nosing around for something to eat, and my first 
 Heutenant was just able to keep up, being a feeble man. 
 Much of the time I was alone with the company, and all 
 the time I had the work to do and did it as well as I 
 could. At night I found the best places possible for 
 them — gave their comfort the precedence. Sometimes I 
 got them a good mess of hot coffee — and lost nothing 
 by so doing. Such are just the times when men see 
 the real animus of their officers; some captains, as soon 
 as the regiment halted for the night, would scoot off 
 with their officers to the best house they could find — 
 and their men have cursed them for it and remembered 
 it. To-day when, of the several thousand paroled 
 troops here, only our regiment can be made to drill — 
 the rest refusing point blank — ^my company is, they say, 
 the most subordinate and dutiful in the 125th. I exact 
 the same obedience that I always did, and it has been 
 invariably given ; not a man have I punished for mutinous 
 conduct, and yet the most experienced captain of us 
 to-day sent some forty men to jail for disobedience. 
 
 "My men talk Hke all the rest; they think they ought 
 not and cannot be made to drill, but when ordered to 
 ' fall in ' not a man has refused as yet. I believe they 
 are repaying my attention to them.* 
 
 "No promised land greeted our eyes as we approached 
 the lousy encampment at Annapolis (Sunday p.m., 
 September 2 2d); the thought of seeing the ocean had 
 given me new vigor on the road thither, but we could 
 not see it. We slept under the trees; next day built 
 brush huts and lay in them, doing nothing but eat and 
 sleep, till we fell in and marched a mile and a half to 
 
 * It must be remembered that this and all letters written by 
 Armstrong during his army life were intended to be read by his 
 mother and sisters only. 
 
78 Samuel Chapman Atmstrongf 
 
 Annapolis — a den of rampant secessionists — took boat 
 for Baltimore — two and a half hours on Chesapeake 
 Bay — marched through Baltimore and saw some of 
 the beauties of the 'Monumental City,' and took those 
 everlasting box-and-bench cars for Chicago — forty men 
 in each car; rations consisted of hard bread and partly 
 cooked fat pork. We traveled slowly night and day. 
 I slept nights on a board eighteen inches wide — a bench 
 twenty-six inches high — ^my head resting on the legs of a 
 noble fellow of the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth New 
 York Regiment whose ankle was sprained at the battle 
 of Maryland Heights; we formed a strong attachment; 
 such private soldiers would make an invincible army." 
 
 The One Hundred and Twenty-fifth was encamped 
 at Camp Douglas, near the shores of Lake Michigan, 
 where it remained from September 29th to Novem- 
 ber 2ist. The time passed there was not altogethei 
 irksome to Armstrong. He saw much in the wide 
 stretches of the lake to enjoy and to remind him 
 of his sea-girt home, and found friends in Chicago 
 and duties in camp to make the time pass quickly. 
 
 "Camp Douglas, 7 p.m., October, 1862. 
 "I'll tell you the scene. On the right wing a crowd 
 of fellows are singing boisterously the ' Star-Spangled 
 Banner ' ; on the center of the battalion there is a prayer 
 meeting; just to the left of my tent they are singing 
 'Marching Along*; they have just sung 'There is rest 
 for the weary.' It is wonderful how these Sabbath- 
 school airs have such popularity and such a control 
 over the feelings of strong men; there is nothing that 
 the soldier likes so well as these simple, sweet melodies. 
 The night is cold and the moonhght is lovely, extremely 
 
Life in the Afmy. 1 862- J 865 79 
 
 so. [I have] a letter from mother and one from Ellen. 
 Ellen mentioned her visit to Rana and Ulapalakua; 
 these names waken memories that refresh me. And 
 the ' church sewing society. ' I suppose the tow-headed 
 fellows who once only cared for the coffee-room and for 
 all sorts of shindies in corners and out of doors now 
 study their neckties faithfully, select their 'Mary Anns,' 
 and go home with palpitating hearts — generally two 
 of such hearts get together, some way or other. A ' hog 
 hunt' in Hanalei — of course no hog, but the dogs and 
 
 the horses and busy preparations — Sam A would 
 
 generally bring some tall yellow dog that Ponto would 
 cause to quake by showing his teeth just once — all this 
 I'd like; the dashing gallop, the halt of the cavalcade, 
 just to shoot a little 'kolea' a quarter of a mile off — 
 the prior hunt to catch the unruly dogs, the stealthy 
 advance of the hunter and final escape of the bird. Then 
 a moonlight ride with the Punahou girls — three cheers 
 for them — fine girls they are; will compare with any. 
 Long live the omnibus and Harvey the driver, and all 
 the animals that draw it ! 
 
 " Here I am, a soldier and in a queer fix — how came I 
 here? But my childhood's and also my manhood's 
 home will always be a Mecca to my thoughts ; they go 
 back and travel from mountain top to distant horizon; 
 they leap from island to island and from one mansion 
 to another — I cannot follow them." 
 
 " November 10, 1862. 
 "I have just come from court, where we are trying 
 an artillery first lieutenant. Our court is a terror 
 to all the regiments and brigades here. We have 
 power over life itself. We have good times in court, 
 telling stories, eating apples, and smoking. They are 
 trying to teach me to smoke and I take a whiff now and 
 
So Samwel Chapman Afmstfong 
 
 then, but it don't go at all. I am not made for a smoker. 
 I am kept constantly busy all the time. 
 
 "I am sick of the parole. I wish to be in the field. 
 It galls me to think of my chum, Arch. Hopkins, in 
 the advancing army and I here ; but we may be relieved 
 soon — shall be if Bumside makes a big stroke. 
 
 "I have a first-rate company of boys — they obey me 
 better than I ever obeyed any one else." 
 
 At length the regiment was returned to Wash- 
 ington for fiirther duty. 
 
 " Michigan Southern Railroad, 
 " November 21, 1862. 
 
 "Chicago is about five miles in the rear. We are 
 dashing over the prairie in elegant passenger cars. I 
 am with my company, or a part of it — forty-eight of 
 us in one car. It is nearly dark. I have just witnessed 
 a glorious sunset on the prairie. I am writing by the 
 dim light of a car kerosene lamp — ^the boys are all gay; 
 there is a banjo a-going, entertaining us with some 
 rampageous jig — others are singing the beautiful 
 Sunday-school melody, 'We Shall Know Each Other 
 There.' It is a scene that cannot be described — it is 
 never the same for two successive minutes ; a Httle while 
 ago all hands were singing 'John Brown' with inspiring 
 effect ; now all are chattering like guinea-hens. We have 
 stopped a moment for wood and water. The scene 
 within is intensely human, and that outside intensely 
 natural — divine; there is a long, narrow belt of red 
 along the horizon; the heavens are beclouded. 
 
 "We are moving again and I can hardly write legibly. 
 We are in for a four days' ride and are probably bound 
 to Washington — whether to be sent into barracks or 
 to Texas, with Hunter to South Carolina or with 
 
Life in the Army. J862-J865 8i 
 
 Burnside to Richmond, we know not — this is a most 
 uncertain Hfe. 
 
 "This has been a day of breaking up and an awfully 
 hard day for me, having no officers; one having resigned, 
 
 the first lieutenant, and Tom S gone home on 
 
 a furlough. I have lost from my company about six- 
 teen by desertion; the regiment has lost about 300. 
 After we were paroled the men had little conscience 
 about desertion. It is almost impossible to keep a 
 paroled regiment together. 
 
 "The boys are getting quieter as it grows dark and 
 many are asleep, though it is no later than six o'clock; 
 the evenings are very long; it is dark at about 5 p. m. 
 
 "My faithful servant, John Q , sits by my side. 
 
 I sometimes call him my 'Man Friday' or 'My Thief.' 
 He is singularly devoted. He is a little Canadian 
 Frenchman — talks the funniest English — has a wife 
 and four children in Troy. I have detailed him from 
 my company to wait upon me and nothing can equal 
 his fidelity. He makes fires, does washing, blacks my 
 boots, picks up my clothes when I throw them down, 
 looks at every object he sees as created for my comfort, 
 and if he thinks anything will contribute to that he 
 takes it — ^hence I call him my thief. He is utterly 
 indescribable. I can hardly look at him without 
 laughing. Thinking that his sitting by me would inter- 
 fere with my writing, he has been standing up and 
 walking about the car for an hour. Such is my servant 
 Q ; I have not told the half." 
 
 The regiment arrived at Washington November 
 25th, and for the next three months it wandered 
 among the minor military stations of Virginia. 
 Both officers and men were ignorant alike of the 
 
82 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 meaning of their frequent changes of camp and of 
 the events going on about them. They knew 
 only the discomfort of cold and snow and night 
 marches, and, on the other hand, the pleasures 
 of camp-life, comrades round a camp-fire, the 
 arrival of home letters, impromptu gaieties among 
 the officers, and the never-failing charm of life 
 under canvas. 
 
 The war dragged on during this most discouraging 
 of winters. In the month of November the North 
 had been cheered by the news of Union victories 
 in the West; but McClellan, in command of the 
 Army of the Potomac, still awaited that condition 
 of entire readiness to which he looked for success. 
 At length, wearied by waiting, the President 
 removed McClellan and appointed Bumside to his 
 command. Burnside, unable to resist the popular 
 clamor for action at any cost, fought the disastrous 
 battle of Fredericksburg on December 17th and 
 after it lay fronting the foe, but unwilling and 
 unable to join battle. 
 
 The One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York 
 played a humble part in these larger movements ; held 
 as a reserve force for the Army of the Potomac, 
 it was shifted here and there in conformity with its 
 movements. 
 
 Armstrong thoroughly enjoyed this winter cam- 
 paign. His health was excellent. " I do nothing 
 but eat, sleep and study tactics," he wrote. Indeed, 
 with no harassing home cares, in no immediate 
 
Life in the Army. J862-J865 83 
 
 danger of battle, and in a congenial position, with 
 good pay, why should he not be happy? He 
 expected to save most of his salary for the year 
 and at the end of that time to retire from the army, 
 if indeed the war was not over by that time. 
 
 But in spite of the easy-going camp life, this 
 positive responsible experience in affairs was grad- 
 ually maturing him. He wrote to his mother and 
 sisters : 
 
 "I am sorry you felt so about my enlisting. No 
 great advantage is gained without risk, and the service 
 has so far been of the greatest advantage to me. It has 
 been worth far more to me than so many months of 
 college life. I have not found it demoralizing. I 
 have gained rather than lost spiritually since I entered it. 
 
 "Ladies here visit the hospitals and do something 
 for the need};^; fashionable women do this because of 
 the promptings of their better natures, not always for 
 the popularity of the thing. Now at this time and 
 distance I look back upon the few times I taught in 
 the Kawaiahao Sunday-school with far greater satis- 
 faction than upon my labours in the 'Foreign Church* 
 Sunday-school. I should be glad to hear that all the 
 family had begun to labor in the Kawaiahao Sunday- 
 school, though in order to do it they did not attend the 
 other. I hope the girls will imitate you in pursuing an 
 earnest philanthropic policy worthy of their father. 
 I never got one-quarter as much real good from English 
 preaching as I did from teaching those native children. 
 
 " It is pleasant at the time to sit under good preaching 
 and hard to give it up; but should the girls attend 
 Fort Street church evenings — as father did — and 
 Sunday mornings teach the Kanaka children, and on 
 
84 SamocI Chapman Atmstfong 
 
 the way home drop in at the hospital and just go from 
 bed to bed and speak a word, or go out among the 
 native houses back of our house, there they will find 
 sick who will greatly need little comforts; old women 
 are plenty around our neighborhood who are desti- 
 tute — help such. 
 
 "This is my earnest advice from the field, before a 
 wary, subtle and powerful enemy. No one in the 
 wild scene around me — of men building huts and fires, 
 some shouting and laughing or swearing, of snow falling 
 in beautiful myriad flakes — no one, I say, would imagine 
 that I am writing such counsel on this old box-cover. 
 But I am in earnest. My position and its possibilities 
 cause me to look at things seriously. 
 
 "If you find some are better sympathisers in your 
 good work than others, just quietly have less to do 
 with the latter and more with the former. Let them 
 alone in word and in deed. Don't be discouraged if 
 the devil takes a new tack to defeat his enemies by 
 setting them at loggerheads. It will come out all 
 right." 
 
 Regarding his own part in the great struggle 
 there is a securer tone; he wrote the Christmas Eve 
 before the Emancipation Proclamation went into 
 effect : 
 
 "I learn to-night that Burnside and Seward have 
 resigned. What to do as things now look I don't 
 know — what am I fighting for? But the first day of 
 January is at hand — possibly the greatest day in 
 American history — when the sons of Africa shall be 
 free. To wait until that day I am content, and then I 
 shall know for what I am contending — for freedom and 
 for the oppressed. I shall then be willing to go into the 
 
Life in the Atmy. J862-f865 85 
 
 fight, and you will feel less grieved if I fall for such a 
 cause. You and I will then have occasion to congratu- 
 late ourselves that our family is represented in the 
 grea.test struggle of modern times for the most sacred 
 principles. 
 
 "I tell you thinking men are more and more largely 
 of the opinion that the Southern Confederacy is a fixed 
 fact, and I am inclined to it, but I have none the less 
 faith in the ultimate triumph of right. Possibly God 
 will crown our arms with success after the ist of 
 January, for then we shall be fighting for a principle. 
 I am curious to see what will turn up." 
 
 A letter written January 15 th to a college friend 
 strikes a vein of reflective philosophy which appears 
 in his letters with increasing frequency and became 
 in later life the dominating influence in his thoughts. 
 
 " I know it is dangerous to tell of one's deep purposes — 
 the profoundest resolutions are so weak; but without 
 sickness or mutilation I shall not hope to see my friends. 
 So long as I am of the army I shall be in it, unless, like 
 you, I am laid down by sickness, and there is no present 
 prospect of that. I like the army and I am devoted, I 
 trust, to our cause. Besides, a soldier's life is a constant 
 life, and for that I am the more satisfied with it; we 
 profess to be soldiers and are soldiers; how many of our 
 other professions are realized in the same manner? 
 I tell you, chum, civil life is more or less of a humbug — 
 rather more. Christian men walk arm in arm with the 
 devil, and are in thousands of cases — shall I say it? — 
 hypocrites. Since I entered the army I have become 
 more hilarious, more jocose than before, but I believe 
 an honester man. 
 
86 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 "We hold ourselves in readiness to fight, and if 
 prepared to sacrifice life, how much more prepared to 
 sacrifice things of smaller moment; our position keeps 
 us in a generous, manly frame of mind. 
 
 "Well, chum, I'm rolling over lots of wild schemes in 
 my head, and D. V. one of these days I'll strike out; I 
 want you along. But mind — effort leads to success — 
 there is a point where one ends and the other begms, 
 and here lies the difference in men. One man will not 
 do a thing until he snail see exactly where this point 
 shall be ; another cares not if between where effort stops 
 and success commences there is a gulf, be it ever so wide. 
 Such are the extremes ; men are ranged all along between 
 — I rather lean toward the latter extreme. Where the 
 eye of sense sees no continuity, but labor and its 
 results widely separate, a certain faith steps in and binds 
 them together, and trusting to this faith some men will 
 go forward as freely as if there were no break, no doubt, 
 for just here is the place of doubt." 
 
 There were a few colored servants in the regiment, 
 from whom he received his first impressions of the 
 Negro race. He at first thought them "worse than 
 Kanakas, " but began presently to respect them in 
 theory, if not in practice. 
 
 "Chum, I am a sort of abolitionist, but I haven't 
 learned to love the Negro. I beHeve in universal 
 freedom; I believe the whole world cannot buy a single 
 soul. The Almighty has set, or rather limited, the 
 price of one man, and until worlds can be paid for a 
 single Negro I don't believe in selling or buying them. 
 I go in, then, for freeing them more on accotmt of 
 their souls than their bodies, I assure you." 
 
Life in the Afmy. J862-J865 87 
 
 This mention of the Negro is the last for several 
 months — indeed, until he took command of a 
 regiment of colored soldiers in November of the 
 following year. 
 
 During the month of February the One Hundred 
 and Twenty-fifth was removed to Centreville, 
 Virginia, where it remained in camp for three months. 
 This was a period which fulfilled a young officer's 
 dreams of delight and which Armstrong has de- 
 scribed as follows: 
 
 "Summer reigns in Centreville — the place is lovely — 
 windy and awfully dusty. Our camp looks gay. Along 
 the line of privates' tents there are double rows of young 
 cedar and pine trees which have been transplanted, and 
 they create a cool shade for the men and make our camp 
 really romantic. There are over six tall cedar trees 
 around and overshadowing my tent, a bower of ever- 
 greens in front and two small tents in the rear, all 
 connecting. I call it luxury. I like it. Camp life is 
 gay, though there are interruptions, of course. I'll 
 tell you my pleasures. One is visiting the pretty 
 secesh girls in the neighborhood. I am on very good 
 terms with many of them and we have lively times. 
 Generally go out to see them (in fact, we only can) 
 on Sunday afternoons. There are also many sensible 
 people, but being young and foolish I incline to the 
 aforesaid girls. Then it is pleasant to go out after 
 dress parade and hear the brigade band play at 
 'retreat' (sundown)." 
 
 While in Centreville he was detailed to serve on 
 one or more military courts-martial, a duty to 
 
88 Samuel Chapman Armsttongf 
 
 which he was often thereafter subject, and one 
 which — though he calls it "too dreadfiil, too sick- 
 ening" — yet carried with it a certain prestige as a 
 recognition of an officer's judgment and standing. 
 
 But Centreville, lovely, dusty, windy Centre- 
 ville, with its picnics and pretty girls, was an 
 episode which came too quickly to a close. June 
 25 th came the order that the One Hundred and 
 Twenty-fifth was to break camp and join the 
 famous Second Army Corps, then commanded by 
 General Hancock at Gum Springs. This move 
 brought Armstrong at once to the front of the 
 stage of war. 
 
 While the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth had been 
 encamped at Centreville the battle of Chancellors- 
 ville had been fought, not far away. This striking 
 Confederate victory encouraged Lee in the belief 
 that the time had come for an invasion of the 
 North. Nothing could so effectively hamper the 
 movements of Grant, who was hammering at the 
 gates of Vicksburg, as the fact that some great 
 Union city was in danger. So without loss of time 
 Lee pushed northward into Pennsylvania, and after 
 him followed Hooker with the Army of the Poto- 
 mac, which he had successfully reorganized and 
 which was eager for a fight. The One Hundred 
 and Twenty-fifth marched rapidly to Gum Springs, 
 and together with the rest of the Second Corps 
 was hurried northward toward Gettysburg, where 
 the whole army was gathering tmder General Meade. 
 
Life in the Afmy. J862-J865 89 
 
 The battle of Gettysburg, Armstrong's first trial 
 of real warfare, is described at length in letters to 
 his mother. It seems as if he craved to make clear 
 to her the many and vivid impressions which 
 thronged his brain after the battle was over. But 
 the part played by any one man in a great battle 
 runs like a single thread through the great fabric 
 of the whole contest, and in order to be compre- 
 hended must be seen in relation to the whole. 
 
 On the morning of July 2, 1863, the Union and 
 Confederate forces were drawn up in two curved 
 confronting lines, separated by a distance varying 
 fr®m half a mile to two miles. The intervening 
 space was broken by wooded areas and a brook 
 or two, and bounded on the south by the hill of 
 Round Top; on the north it was open toward the 
 town of Gettysburg. The right wing of the Federal 
 forces, stretching toward the northeast, embraced 
 Cemetery Hill, near which, within the range both 
 of its batteries and the Confederate guns of 
 Seminary Ridge, the Second Corps made its first 
 appearance on the battle-field. 
 
 On the afternoon of July 2d Lee advanced to 
 the attack. He was met by the Third and Second 
 Corps, which suffered severely but succeeded in 
 repulsing him. Of this day Armstrong writes, 
 after all is over: 
 
 " Battle-field near Gettysburg. 
 "The night before the battle we lay out in the woods, 
 
go Samuel Chapman Atmsttong; 
 
 five miles from Gettysburg. All was quiet, and as I 
 was lying on my back in the open air, looking up into 
 the sky through the tall and leafy oak trees, I wondered 
 what would happen on the morrow. I knew I might 
 at that hour on the night following be as inanimate as 
 the sods under me and my soul have gone up to its last 
 account. I felt no quaking, but an anxiety for my own 
 future condition and for those who loved me on earth. 
 I soon fell asleep" and slept soundly. 
 
 "On the 2d of July we were drawn up between 
 two batteries (one Confederate, one Union) and sus- 
 tained a severe cannonade, lying on our faces in an 
 orchard — that is, most of us. I preferred to take my 
 chance standing and watching the fight and seeing the 
 skirmishers and sharpshooters pick each other off. 
 After some time, about 5 p. m., our brigade was marched 
 off to the left center, formed into line and charged into a 
 valley full of rebs who were sheltered by a dense growth 
 of underbrush. 
 
 "As we advanced with fixed bayonets and began 
 to fire, they yelled out from the trees, 'Don't fire 
 on your own men ! ' We ceased firing, and the rebs 
 who had so deceived us gave us ' Hail Columbia ' and 
 dropped some of our best men. Those fellows were 
 the famous ' Lotdsiana Tigers ' — but we rushed at them 
 with fixed bayonets, drove them out of the brush and 
 then plunged our fire into them as they ran. Many 
 were within pistol shot, and the old spindle-legged, short- 
 coat-tailed fellows fell headlong by the dozen; the 
 bullets whistled by me by scores, but I didn't mind 
 them, though all the while perfectly conscious of 
 what might happen. Well, we peppered away at them 
 and charged furiously and drove them like sheep. But 
 we were ordered to fall back amid an enfilading fire 
 from a rebel battery. We fell back and returned in 
 
Life in the Army. J862-J865 91 
 
 order to our old ground, losing many men from the 
 rebel canister and grape. 
 
 "This was our first fight — my first; a long and great 
 curiosity was satisfied. Men fell dead all around me. 
 The sergeant who stands behind me when in line was 
 killed, and heaps were wounded. In the charge after 
 the rebs I was pleasantly, though perhaps dangerously, 
 situated. I did not allow a man to get ahead of me." 
 
 By means of this charge the enemy was driven 
 back and the regiment retired slightly. It had lost 
 one-fifth of its men, but the opposing force — the 
 'Louisiana Tigers' — was completely shattered and 
 lost its regimental existence. Out of 1,700 men it 
 had lost 1,400. 
 
 The One Hundred and Twenty-fifth encamped 
 for the night on Cemetery Hill, Here it lay pre- 
 paring for the terrible work of the morrow, which 
 culminated in the famous Pickett's charge. The 
 letter continues: 
 
 "Next day I was sent to the line of skirmishers with 
 my division (two companies). It was an ugly place — 
 the two lines lay about 100 yards apart, rather less in 
 some places, and the sharpshooters were butchering 
 each other to no purpose whatever. Both were crouched 
 down fiat on their faces behind fences or in the grass, 
 and away they popped all the morning, killing and wound- 
 ing quite a number. I took position on the advanced 
 line, lying down behind some rails; but I was often on 
 my feet to give orders, and then I would always hear 
 bullets whistle over and past me. Finally we were 
 ordered to charge the rebel skirmishers. It was a foolish 
 
92 Samwel Chapman Afmstrong 
 
 order — a fatal one. I led that charge, if any one did, 
 jumping to my feet and waving my sword for the men 
 to follow, and rushing toward the sharpshooters, some 
 of whom ran on our approach, while others waited to pick 
 off a few of us. There were four captains in that charge; 
 two were killed near me and one wounded. I escaped, 
 though I was witliin fifty yards of the rebs. We drove 
 them and took their line, but they rallied in great force 
 and deliberately advanced. Then it was hot. The 
 bullets flew like hail over my head and it was not safe 
 lying down. Many were hit near me, and after nearly 
 all our men had fallen back I ran back to the former 
 line, which we held. The charge was unnecessary, but 
 it was ordered. 
 
 "After this we ceased firing on both sides, and after 
 a two hours' lull the heaviest cannonade of the war 
 was opened, we lying between the two fires — ^not per- 
 fectly safe, for the shells often burst too soon and the 
 fragments fell around us. 
 
 "The firing was tremendous. Nothing could have 
 been more impressive or magnificent. 
 
 "Finally the rebels came out of the woods in three 
 long lines several hundred yards apart, with glittering 
 bayonets and battle-flags flying.* It was grand to see 
 those masses coming up, and I trembled for our cause. 
 I rushed to the skirmish line, saw our opportunity (I 
 was then with the reserves), returned and assembled 
 the reserves, and with the men and officers of the 
 Eighth Ohio Voltmteers hurried toward the flank of the 
 rebel lines of battle and gave them fits. Then it was 
 grand. I'll tell you my fix. I was exposed to the fire 
 of our own artillery from the rear, from the rebel 
 batteries in front, and from the musketry of their line 
 of battle. Many around me were hit, but Providence 
 
 ♦Pickett's charge. 
 
iLife in the Army. J862-J865 93 
 
 spared me, although I was in advance and, if anybody 
 did, led that attack. Some officers skulked behind 
 a house. I felt no fear, though I never forgot that any 
 moment I might fall. The responsibility and the high 
 duty assigned me sustained me, and it was wonderful 
 that my own men didn't shoot me ; they were so excited 
 and were behind me. 
 
 "Well, we turned the rebel flank, and no wonder, for 
 we did terrible execution; besides, our batteries and 
 line of battle in front were mowing them down. This 
 was too much for them. The first line broke and ran; 
 the second came on, were served in the same way, and 
 also broke and scattered; yet they were as brave as 
 lions. Their dead lay close up to our line, and one of 
 their colour-bearers fell over one of our Napoleon 
 field-pieces. Hundreds got behind a house and laid 
 down their arms. We captured ten stands of colors. 
 Thus the rebs were served all along our line, and on the 
 whole it was one of the severest fights of the war and 
 a glorious success for us.* 
 
 *An account of the battle given in the Regimental History 
 of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York says : 
 
 "Noticing a lull in the cannonading, Captain Armstrong 
 looked around and saw the Confederate lines marching grandly 
 down the slope toward our men. He immediately ordered 
 the entire picket reserves and all whom he could muster — 
 about seventy-five all told — to fall in and led them on the 
 'double quick' about three hundred yards down the Emmets- 
 burg road to get at the enemy in flank. Finding a rail fence 
 at right angle to their advancing line some sixty or seventy 
 yards from their extreme left, he posted his men along the rail 
 fence. They took position unflinchingly, and resting their rifles 
 on the top of the fence, took deliberate aim and poured a 
 murderous fire into the rebel flank comprising Pettigrew's men. 
 The Confederate leader afterward confessed surprise that part 
 of the Eighth Ohio had been given the credit for the flank fire 
 which contributed efficiently to the result. But distinct record 
 should go into general history of Captain Armstrong's brave 
 and skilful action at that important point of the battle. 
 . . Of the five officers who served with Captain Arm- 
 strong in his brave action, he was the only survivor." 
 
94 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 "But I cannot describe the battle-field — the dead — 
 the wounded — the piteous groans and the prayers of 
 agony that went up to Heaven all night and day. The 
 usual expression is 'Oh, Lord !' — it can be heard on 
 every side, and when one approaches they cry for water 
 most piteously. Oh, how they beg to be carried away 
 to a doctor. Their hands are either half open or clutch- 
 ing a cartridge or gun or ramrod; just as life left them 
 death keeps them. I may here say to you that I have 
 made what inward preparation I can for death. I 
 keep a little volume of Psalms with me and strive to 
 act the soldier of Christ. 
 
 "Don't be anxious for me. The God above does all 
 things well. There are more battles to be fought and 
 I must fight. My sensations in battle are not strange. 
 I feel simply resolved to do my best, to lead my men, 
 and to accept my fate like a man." 
 
 That night Lee's army stole away southward. 
 
 The battle of Gettysburg marks a crisis in Arm- 
 strong's military life and in the development of his 
 character. Before Gettysburg he had already 
 changed from an untried college student to a skilful 
 disciplinarian with the power of obtaining obedience 
 from his men at critical times; a soldier used to 
 hardship: but the great battle revealed to him 
 life in its deeper aspects. He faced death side by 
 side with his men; he saw many dear to him die; 
 he led two important charges where a high degree 
 of courage and military skill were demanded, and 
 he saw the greatest soldiers of his time maneuver 
 their forces on a crucial field. This battle was the 
 
Life in the Atmy. J862-J865 95 
 
 supreme test of those qualities of determination 
 and judgment, of the power to conceive and execute 
 effective action and the mastery of self in personal 
 danger, which had been bom in him and which 
 much of his life had tended to develop. He had 
 learned his first lesson in the school of responsibility. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Life in the Army — Continued 
 
 * "Loudoun Valley, Virginia, 
 " Nine miles from Harper's Ferry. 
 
 "I have been three weeks at a time without chang- 
 ing or taking off my clothes — sleeping just as I marched, 
 and being so tired with long marches that when I had 
 fixed my little shanty and got my supper I was glad 
 enough to lie down and sleep in my clothes, with noth- 
 ing over me and my boots or a canteen for a pillow. 
 Many a time I have made a good meal off raw salt pork 
 and ' hard tack ' (army crackers) ; sometimes off less ; 
 generally, however, we have coffee three times a day. 
 . . . We are now in a lovely, enchanting val- 
 ley. It is a glorious day and the Sabbath day, too. 
 The only quiet Sabbath for a month. There are mil- 
 lions of large, rich blackberries on the hillside, and 
 the soldiers have bushels of them to eat. I stewed 
 some for myself in a tin cup — the first stew I ever made, 
 and it was good. . . . 
 
 " We don't know where Lee is now. 
 
 " I like this life much, its ups and downs, its lights 
 and shadows, its storms and sunshines, its weariness 
 and rest. (Just stopped to eat a quart of blackberries.) 
 As I resume my pencil, orders come to be ready to 
 march in an hour; so our lovely encampment will soon 
 be desolate." 
 
 * Written about Jiily 20, 1862. 
 
 96 
 
SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG ^^^^^^'';'^'^^''™^^i''''' ""^ 
 THE NINTH UNITED STATES COLORED TROOPb 
 
Life in the Atmy* J862-J865 97 
 
 [Written a few days later.] " We moved along down 
 the valley about five miles and have bivouacked on a 
 beautiful slope covered with grass. Our little tent is 
 of course over us, and I resume my writing, having eaten 
 another quart of rich blackberries mashed up with 
 sugar and water in my cup. The face of the coun- 
 try is covered with little shelter tents, and soldiers are 
 as thick as bees as far as the eye can reach. This being 
 in a large army is a singular thing. It makes one feel 
 most insignificant." 
 
 The Army of the Potomac was not ostensibly 
 on a berrying picnic, but chasing the swift Lee, 
 who easily evaded its leisurely pursuit and was 
 soon out of danger. 
 
 On July 27th, Armstrong, now promoted to the 
 rank of major, left the field for the North, whither 
 he was called on recruiting service. He was 
 obliged to stay near New York on this nondescript 
 duty, except for a trip to Alexandria, Virginia, on 
 a steamship in command of 1,400 men — "deserters, 
 conscripts, stragglers, and soldiers." But when 
 the end of October came and with it the approach 
 of winter, the time for every one to be at work, he 
 felt that "the army is the place for a soldier," and 
 applied for permission to rejoin his regiment in 
 Virginia. 
 
 The change had been pleasant, but he had 
 felt dissatisfied with his position and prospects. 
 Several prominent citizens of New York had 
 tried to raise in that State a colored regiment of 
 
pS Samoel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 which he was to be colonel. At about this time he 
 wrote to Archibald Hopkins: 
 
 "Here's to the heathen! Rather, here's to the 
 Negro ! I say Negro or anything to get out of this. 
 There's the far West, and here am I, a vagabond, a 
 loafer. There are loose, lazy contrabands and why not 
 ' go in' ? My internal machinery can brook this dread- 
 ful titter-fritteration of my time no longer. Now I'm 
 not disappointed in love — there's no one to love ! I 
 go in for some variation in the old song of do-nothing. 
 Time won't do it; the War Department won't do it, 
 and if my dander rises sufficiently I'll do it — I will. 
 Yes, let us strike out — strike out old forms of life and 
 thought, and ring in something new for a change." 
 
 Owing to the opposition of the State authorities 
 to the enlistment of colored men, the plan was 
 never carried into execution and he returned to 
 Virginia still a major, yet the idea of commanding 
 black troops had taken firm hold of his mind, and 
 the place of a major, a "fifth wheel where there is a 
 colonel," as he wrote later, galled him. Some time 
 in November he took examinations which entitled 
 him to a colonelcy of colored troops. These exam- 
 inations were made especially severe on account of 
 the fact that only men of character, determination 
 and education were wanted for the command of 
 colored troops, and out of eighty-five who were 
 examined at the same time but four passed. A 
 lieutenant-colonelcy was soon offered him, which 
 he accepted the more readily because, owing to the 
 
Life in the Army* J 862- J 865 99 
 
 prolonged absence of the colonel, the active organiza- 
 tion and command of the regiment would fall at 
 once into his hands. 
 
 At this time the question whether Negroes were 
 enduring and patient under fire was considered an 
 open one or answered vigorously in the negative. 
 The War Department had been employing them 
 since July, 1862, and they had shown capacity for 
 daring, if not heroism, at Fort Wagner and Milliken's 
 Bend ; still an officer in undertaking their command 
 risked to a considerable extent his military repu- 
 tation. Moreover, the Confederate Congress had 
 declared that commissioned officers commanding 
 "Negroes or mulattoes in armies against the Con- 
 federates should be put to death for inciting servile 
 insurrection or otherwise dealt with at the discretion 
 of the court"; or, in the popular wording of the 
 decree, that "no quarter would be given to 'nigger' 
 officers." But this fact did not disturb the morale 
 of the troops; on the contrary, as Armstrong wrote 
 later : 
 
 "Nothing was of more help to the newly established 
 and not at all fashionable Negro service. In our weekly 
 officers' meetings to study tactics and discuss the situ- 
 ation, fully anticipating such treatment, we agreed 
 that our men must go into battle in good shape and 
 must be made the most of. We told them what to 
 expect," 
 
 Just before leaving his old regiment for the new 
 command he wrote: 
 
 'LoFC. 
 
loo Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 "Camp One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York 
 " Volunteer Infantry, 
 
 "Near Brandy Station, Virginia. 
 
 "Dear Mother: This is the last evening I shall 
 ever perhaps spend with my noble old regiment, the 
 One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York. To- 
 morrow I leave my brave old companions, my gal- 
 lant Company D, my comrades for many months 
 in pleasure and sorrow, in comfort and in suffer- 
 ing. It is hard to do this; very hard. As I write, 
 a band is serenading the General, playing 'When 
 this cruel war is over.' It is harder than leaving my 
 classmates when I left college. You cannot imagine 
 the beauty and the pleasure of the relation in which 
 I now stand to this regiment. 
 
 "I write this in confidence. At first for months 
 they hated me; my company hated me as they would 
 Satan himself. It was because I was strict and paid 
 no respect to their un-military and unmanly humors. 
 But finally, especially after Gettysburg, all this changed. 
 Men saw me go where death seemed almost certain 
 and call upon them to follow and they did so. Men 
 saw that I never flinched or failed in the longest march, 
 that nothing swerved me from the line of my duty. And 
 now I have the utmost confidence of almost every man 
 in the regiment. I think many of my old company 
 love me. I know it and I love them. They have said 
 they would 'go to the devil' for me, and I know that 
 they would never desert me in the hour of trial, no 
 matter what dangers and terrors might be before them. 
 And yet they are young, many of them but boys. Yes, 
 between them and me there is almost a romantic at- 
 tachment. 
 
 " I go into untried scenes, but with no fear to meet 
 the future. 
 
Life in the Atmy. J 862- J 565 loi 
 
 " The Negro troops have not yet entirely proved them- 
 selves good soldiers ; but if the Negroes can be made to 
 fight well, then is the question of their freedom settled. 
 
 ' ' I tell you the present is the grandest time the world 
 ever saw. The African race is before the world, unex- 
 pectedly to all, and all mankind are looking to see 
 whether the African will show himself equal to the 
 opportunity before him. 
 
 "And what is this opportunity? It is to demon- 
 strate to the world that he is a man, that he has the 
 highest elements of manhood, courage, perseverance, 
 and honor; that he is not only worthy of freedom, but 
 able to win it, so he has a chance. All men must respect 
 heroism and military prowess — those possessing such 
 qualities must and will be made free. They are too 
 noble for slaves, and the nations will despise a country 
 that attempts to enslave men who have saved her own 
 constitution and independence. 
 
 "The star of Africa is rising, her millions now for 
 the first time catching the glimpse of a glorious dawn. 
 Auroral gleams are lighting up the horizon of their 
 future, and their future in my opinion rests largely 
 upon the success of the Negro troops in this war. Their 
 honor and their glory will insure the freedom of their 
 race; their dishonor will result in the disbanding of the 
 troops and in universal contempt for the race. I 
 gladly lend myself to the experiment — to this issue. 
 It will yet be a grand thing to have been identified 
 with this Negro movement." 
 
 About the middle of December came the order to 
 join his new command, and Armstrong left at once 
 for Benedict, Maryland, where he took charge of 
 six companies of the Ninth Regiment United States 
 
I02 Samuel Chapman Atmstfong 
 
 Colored Troops, then organizing with three other 
 colored regiments in that place, the whole com- 
 manded by General William Birney. 
 
 "Benedict, Maryland, 
 " December 17, 1863. 
 
 "This is a horrible hole, a rendezvous for blockade 
 runners, deserters, and such trash; good for nothing 
 but oysters, without another redeeming trait. 
 
 "The place is unhealthy, and many are dying of 
 measles and smallpox, etc., but I was never more con- 
 tented. I have brought the regiment up so that we 
 have completely whipped the Seventh Colored, which 
 was raised several weeks before this. Our camp is really 
 beautiful, dressed in evergreens, with handsome stock- 
 ades and well-graded streets, and nobody says 'boo' 
 to us. Our tails are up — the Seventh keep theirs down 
 and 'acknowledge the corn.' I have a fine, an excellent 
 set of officers; they are full of pride and spirit, bound 
 to beat anything around. ... I assure you it is 
 gratifying, because the task has been laborious, diffi- 
 cult, and subjected me to a good many severe tests. 
 I have got along better than I expected to. 
 
 "One of my captains was a lieutenant-colonel and is 
 smart as steel. 
 
 "I tell you this service will get to be the thing. All 
 are satisfied. The men are willing, learn very quickly, 
 and the regiment runs twice as smoothly as a volunteer 
 regiment. 
 
 "To-day is Sunday, but of course no preaching, no 
 Sunday-school, but a day of leisure. To-day it has 
 rained all day. After dinner two of my soldiers were 
 buried. I saw the procession start, ordered my horse 
 and followed it. It was a strange thing to see a man 
 who had been bom a slave and lived the life of a slave 
 
Life m the Army, J 862- J 865 103 
 
 under the lash like a dog carried to the grave with the 
 Stars and Stripes shrouding his coffin, in a procession 
 headed by a brass band playing a funeral dirge, escorted 
 by a body of soldiers with arms reversed, and followed 
 by a procession of comrades in the uniform of United 
 States soldiers, under charge of three commissioned 
 officers of the army. The procession reached the grave ; 
 the same funeral service that is read at the funeral of 
 sovereigns was read at the grave of the slave-soldier, 
 and three volleys of musketry were fired over his 
 coffin. 
 
 "It was a most impressive comment upon the gran- 
 deur of the struggle in which we are engaged. We are 
 fighting for humanity and freedom, the South for 
 barbarism and slavery. Remember, that was the 
 burial of a private soldier, the humblest man in the 
 army, and the funeral of a Negro who, had it not been 
 for the freedom we gave him, might have been beaten 
 to death and tumbled into a pit. 
 
 "I have been visiting the hospitals to-day, where 
 about 100 of my regiment are quartered. They seemed 
 glad to see me. 
 
 "But I must tell you about Christmas. These 
 Negroes are used to having grand times on that day, 
 and so I determined to give them some sport." 
 
 It is interesting to note that Armstrong grasped 
 thus early the importance of providing for and 
 guiding the social instinct of the Negro. The 
 competitive trials referred to in the next extract 
 from the journal developed regimental pride, in 
 which the Negroes were often lacking. 
 
 "We officers subscribed money freely and bought 
 an ox, which we roasted whole for the regiment. 
 
104 Samwcl Chapman Afmstfong; 
 
 "The day's sports opened with trials of strength at 
 rope-pulling, the victor always receiving a prize and 
 always being greeted with vociferous cheers. After 
 this they ran races for prizes, and there was some 
 wonderful running. Then they had a greased pole to 
 climb, with $5 on top of it, which afforded rare 
 sport. Next was a chase after greased pigs which had 
 all their hair cut off and had been well oiled. The 
 captor was to have the pig provided he caught him 
 by the tail. A lot of bags had been furnished for a 
 sack-race, which passed off with great success. 
 
 "After dinner the two regiments were drawn up facing 
 each other, about ten rods apart, and the champion 
 runners contested twice for a $5 prize. Also there 
 was a blindfold race. My regiment won all the 
 prizes and had during the day three times as much 
 sport as any other. The men said they never had 
 such a Christmas before. The roast ox was eaten for 
 supper. During the afternoon I had most of my 
 officers get horses. Some got horses, some got colts, 
 some got mules, and I drilled the squad on the parade 
 ground, also ran races and cut up generally: had a high 
 old time. 
 
 "I feel more in my element since being a mounted 
 officer. I have got along finely with my regiment. 
 Have the finest camp in the brigade, and the Ninth is 
 acknowledged to lead the rest. The regiment next to 
 us had six weeks the start of us, and to-day they are 
 not over one week ahead of us in drill and far behind 
 us in everything else. We expect to beat everything 
 aroimd in everything, and we are in a fair way to 
 do it." 
 
 He also stimulated self-respect among his men by 
 insisting on a high standard of neatness in their 
 
Life in the Army. 1 862- J 865 105 
 
 camp and individual quarters, himself taking the 
 lead with enthusiasm. He never put up a tent, 
 whether for the stay of a week or of six months, 
 without decorating it with such simple garlands as 
 the woods afforded, setting up his books and 
 pictures in a homelike way, and contriving pleasant 
 arbors and approaches to shelter it. In the same 
 spirit the tents of the regiment were pitched in even 
 lines; trees planted to shade the company streets 
 and the streets themselves neatly sanded. Said 
 he, "Though I am a poor housekeeper, I am a good 
 camp-maker." 
 
 "Camp Stanton, Benedict, Maryland, 
 "Februarys, 1864. 
 "I am writing in my own tent. I have a man whose 
 sole business is to keep my tent in good order and my 
 fire a-going, and so zealous is he that on warm days 
 like this he almost roasts me by the great blaze that 
 he makes up. Cedar is now burning and the room is 
 filled with a fragrance that exhales from the wood. 
 It is almost equal to the perfume of sandalwood. My 
 floor is swept eight or ten times a day, and although I 
 do my best to scatter things around I don't succeed 
 very well. The ' Dominie ' has a great taste for natural 
 history and botany. He has decorated the room with 
 boughs of holly and a cunning bird's nest nestles among 
 the evergreen leaves. My furniture is simple, a bunk, 
 a chair, a desk, two boxes, one for a seat and one for a 
 wash-stand, comprising it all. I have several shelves 
 laden with books and papers. All around the room 
 are suspended on nails various articles; my sword, 
 sash, rubber overcoat, woollen (blue) overcoat, haver- 
 
io6 Samuel Chapman Armsttongf 
 
 sack, clothes, and the Dominie's things. Everything 
 is neat, tidy, comfortable and homelike. I have plenty 
 of books, as Tennyson, Virgil, Pope's ' Iliad,' Mitchell's 
 ' Lectures on Astronomy,' 'Kavanagh' and 'Outre Mer,' 
 Professor Wilson's 'Noctes Ambrosianae' (which are 
 magnificent), etc.; also many military works, as 
 Jomini, Schults, etc. 
 
 "I never enjoyed myself better than here. Have 
 plenty of visitors. Many of the officers sing. Dom- 
 inie's tenor is excellent and we frequently serenade the 
 camps. Our collection of songs is rare, and we some- 
 times get a lot of officers together and prolong our 
 hilarity over oysters, etc., till late. There are plenty 
 of splendid fellows here among the officers. The 
 colored troops have much better officers than the 
 State volunteer regiments." 
 
 Writing twenty years later of these days he says : 
 
 "How we studied and drilled! General Bimey 
 driving us hard. He proved himself a great organizer 
 of camps. His service in Maryland in raising colored 
 troops was a bold, successful and grand work. Secre- 
 tary Stanton was back of him. President Lincoln 
 did not seem to feel quite so sure of a step not strictly 
 legal. 
 
 "Many a master who came to get a receipt for his 
 human property was halted by a sentinel who two 
 days before had been his slave. 
 
 "The old flag in our camp was like the brazen serpent 
 raised in the wilderness. Once in sight of it, across the 
 sentry's beat was instant freedom. How the men 
 sang at night around their camp fires ! Much of it was 
 rude, uncouth music, and the officers complained of it. 
 One night I was drawn out of my tent by a wonder- 
 
Life in the Army. J862-I865 107 
 
 ful chorus. The men had struck up an old church 
 hymn — 'They look like men of war; all arm'd and 
 dress' d in uniform, they look like men of war.'* It 
 
 *THE ENLISTED SOLDIERS 
 Sung by the men of the United States colored volunteers. 
 
 1. Hark! listen to the trumpeters, 
 They call for volunteers; 
 
 On Zion's bright and fiow'ry mount. 
 Behold the officers. 
 
 Refrain. — They look like men, they look like men, 
 They look like men of war; 
 All arm'd and dress' d in uniform. 
 They look like men of war. 
 
 2. Their horses white, their armor bright, 
 With courage bold they stand, 
 Enlisting soldiers for their King 
 
 To march to Canaan's land. — Refrain. 
 
 3. It sets my heart quite in a flame 
 A soldier thus to be; 
 
 I will enlist, gird on my arms. 
 And fight for liberty. — Refrain. 
 
 4. We want no cowards in our band 
 That will their colors fly; 
 
 We call for valiant-hearted men 
 Who're not afraid to die. — Refrain. 
 
 5. To see our armies on parade, 
 How martial they appear ! 
 
 All armed and dressed in uniform. 
 They look like men of war. — Refrain. 
 
 6. They follow their great General, 
 The great Eternal Lamb, 
 
 His garment stained in His own blood. 
 King Jesus is His name. — Refrain. 
 
 7. The trumpets sound, the armies shout. 
 They drive the host of hell; 
 
 How dreadful is our God to adore. 
 The great Immanuel ! — Refrain. 
 
io8 Samuel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 fitted the scene, and their hearty singing of it sent 
 through me a sensation I shall never forget. It became 
 their battle-hymn. These were the dramatics of war; 
 the dynamics came later. 
 
 "I did not then realize how wise it was to put the 
 black man into uniform and use him as a United States 
 soldier, though the pay was but $7 a month; white 
 soldiers received $13 a month.* Treating him as 
 a soldier made him one. The Negro rallied grandly to 
 the duty required. There was, as there has been ever 
 since, more in him than we expected to find and more 
 than his old masters ever dreamed of. 
 
 "Both armies despised our black troops in those 
 days; but before the war was over they were drilling 
 Negro troops in the Capitol Square at Richmond, Vir- 
 ginia, to help save the Confederacy, 
 
 "I was called to command a party to hunt a South- 
 erner who had shot, under excitement, one of our 
 recruiting officers, and had the unpleasant duty of 
 searching the house of a charming family who had most 
 kindly entertained me the week before. 
 
 "My soldiers wished to do their whole duty. As I 
 galloped one day by the pioneer corps, who were re- 
 turning from woodchopping, they solemnly presented 
 axes. 
 
 "The sentries were loyal, but not always clear-headed. 
 A party of officers lugging slyly into camp a keg of 
 beer were halted with 'Who comes here?' 'Comrades, 
 bearing the body of a deceased brother,' was the reply. 
 The solemn-sounding words and the dignity of death 
 overcame the awe-struck guard, who let them in with- 
 out the countersign. 
 
 "Mess life was usually hilarious. The 'Anvil Chorus ' 
 
 *After May 22, 1864, the Negro troops received pay equal to 
 the whites. 
 
Life in the Atmy. J 862- J 865 109 
 
 was produced with great effect with tin cups, knives 
 and tin plates. 
 
 "With all the care in selecting men, the mortality 
 was great. The men lived and were clothed differently 
 than usual. Pneumonia carried off many. The new 
 quarters, built of logs and mud, were damp. Even on 
 their own ground, with no climatic change whatever, 
 the death rate was high. One reason was, no doubt, 
 their superstitious fears excited by sickness. The 
 doctors afterward said that the black soldiers bore 
 surgical operations with wonderful fortitude, but in 
 ordinary sickness their pluck failed and they gave up." 
 
 At Benedict was a school for Negro soldiers, 
 probably an excellent example of the military 
 schools that were springing up here and there in the 
 South wherever colored soldiers were stationed, 
 and it is interesting to note that to Armstrong was 
 given the presidency of the "college." The jour- 
 nal resumes: 
 
 "There are five ladies from Boston at this place 
 teaching, sent at General Birney's request by a Boston 
 society. I am in charge of the college, which is an old 
 secesh tobacco barn, cleaned out, ventilated, and illu- 
 minated by a few tallow candles ; well seated and holds 
 500 men. The school is held two hours by day and two 
 hours in the evening, and it is a sight to see the soldiers 
 groping after the very least knowledge. They are 
 principally learning their letters; a pitiable sight, and 
 thank slavery for it. In book knowledge, in drill and 
 all military duty they make remarkable progress. 
 At such a time one realizes the curse that has been upon 
 them. Slavery makes brutes of men, and then refuses 
 
lio Samwel Chapman Aumstfong 
 
 to give them freedom because they are so brutish. I 
 think those men have a good reason for fighting and 
 that they will fight." 
 
 "Steam Propeller and Transport Ship 'United 
 States,' 
 "March 4, 1864, 7:30 o'clock p. m. 
 "Chesapeake Bay, near mouth of Patuxent River. 
 
 "Dear Mother: Most snugly and cozily am I ensconced 
 in an arm chair in the ladies' saloon of this new and 
 elegant steamer of 1,278 tons. 
 
 "We have on board 1,300 colored soldiers — one and 
 one-third regiments — bound for Hilton Head, South 
 Carolina. The evening is lovely as lovely can be, but 
 rather chilly. So, after going all over the ship and see- 
 ing that the men were as comfortable as could be, and 
 drinking in delight for awhile as I viewed from the top of 
 the bulwarks the sky, the stars, the gorgeous sunset 
 clouds and the glassy sea, I have taken my portfolio from 
 my valise and in this quiet place turned my thoughts 
 homeward. At my feet lies our noble St. Bernard and 
 Newfoundland dog Charlie — the noblest brute I ever 
 
 saw ; at my elbow sits ' Dominie ' H (the chaplain), . 
 
 . . Every one is gay to-night. This is so far a pleasure 
 sail. Some are playing cards, some are singing, some 
 reading, all are merry. But who will come back of all 
 these whose hearts now throb with life, whose eyes are 
 lit with the hopes within them? Never mind; our 
 term may indeed be a little shorter for this war, but at 
 the longest how brief it is ! And so I don't bother 
 myself much about possibilities, but strive rather to 
 obey the calls of the present and trust in God. 
 
 " If I fall, be assured that I never was better prepared 
 than now for the worst. Since entering this branch of 
 the service I have felt the high duty and sacredness of 
 
Life in the Afmy. J662-J865 iii 
 
 my position. It is no sacrifice for me to be here; it is 
 rather a glorious opportunity, and I would be nowhere 
 else than here if I could, and nothing else than an officer 
 of colored troops if I could. This content, this almost 
 supreme satisfaction has shed a rich glow upon my 
 life. I have felt, and do feel, like a very apostle of 
 human liberty striking the deadliest possible blow at 
 oppression ; and what duty is more glorious than that ? 
 What nobler work has been given to man since the 
 Reformation? I feel more than ever in sympathy 
 with the good, the holy, the just and the true, and the 
 blessedness of religion has descended upon me with a 
 sweetness, a beauty, a richness and a power that it 
 never had before. Besides ail this, I have a certain 
 consciousness that I am no disgrace to this sacred 
 service, which I think is well based. I certainly could 
 ask no pleasanter relations than I now hold to my 
 fellow officers." 
 
 The expedition to Hilton Head was made for the 
 purpose of reenforcing Port Royal, a post which, 
 though surrounded by rebels, had been in the hands 
 of the Federals since November, 1861. There was 
 little actual fighting. The picket line, twenty miles 
 in length, was in no place over a mile from the 
 enemy, and at many points the outposts were only 
 separated by a stream, so that occasional friction 
 occurred. 
 
 Here Armstrong stayed four weary months, 
 the routine of camp life broken only by occasional 
 raids in the enemy's territory — casual affairs which 
 gave no satisfaction or definite results, but which 
 served to increase his confidence in his black troops — 
 
112 Samuel Chapman Atmsttong 
 
 and by the social pleasures which he extracted 
 from almost any situation. Early in August he 
 wrote to his friend Archibald Hopkins, who was 
 engaged in active service: 
 
 "For myself I am one of the most miserable of men. 
 I never was so wretched. No disappointment of love, 
 no crushing sorrow could so prostrate me as the feeling 
 that I am idling and loafing on these sands, while my 
 old comrades and others are struggling so nobly in 
 Virginia. ... I would rather grind a hand-organ 
 for the edification of the mule-teams of the Army 
 of the Potomac than review a dress parade of a 
 regiment down here. 
 
 "Thus it is always. Some men's hopes must be 
 realized and the hopes of some must fail. God only 
 is great, and any service of His is good enough for mor- 
 tals. The fact is, I am mortally jealous! " 
 
 About August 5 th came the welcome order to 
 return to Virginia. There the main action centered 
 about Petersburg, which had been in a state of 
 siege since June, and toward this city the Ninth 
 Regiment, still part of Birney's corps, now under 
 General Butler in the Army of the James, was 
 directed to move. Their way inland was a hard- 
 fought one. Severe brushes occurred at various 
 Confederate breastworks and other fortifications. 
 Armstrong was overjoyed to be again where some- 
 thing was going on. "We are botmd to glory 
 with a fair wind," he wrote; "nothing but working 
 and fighting ahead." 
 
Life in the Army. 1862- J 865 113 
 
 The following incident of the approach to Peters- 
 burg, which occurred when he was ordered to attack 
 a certain formidable breastwork, shows the con- 
 trol of his troops which Armstrong had acquired 
 through his constant watchfulness for their comfort : 
 
 "Next day there was a bloody assault on the enemy's 
 works, which were captured, and my regiment was 
 sent to occupy a portion of them. I went in under a 
 heavy front and flank fire, got into position in the rifle- 
 pits, and for fifteen minutes or more we had it hot and 
 heavy. My men fell fast, but never flinched. They 
 fired coolly and won great praise. I walked along the 
 line three or four times, and as the work was hardly 
 breast high was much exposed. I passed many killed 
 along my path, and the wounded went in numbers to 
 the rear. Finally, however, the rebs flanked us on 
 the left and forced us out. Standing there in line we 
 were harassed by an unseen foe hidden in the bushes. 
 It was impossible to hold the position, and I ordered 
 them to walk, and they did so the whole distance, shot 
 at by the unseen enemy as they went, and having to 
 climb over fallen trees and go through rough ground. 
 They got back panting with fatigue and lay down 
 exhausted. But orders came, and off we went to retake 
 the rifle-pits. 
 
 "My worn-out regiment and half another were 
 ordered to do what a whole white regiment had done 
 before, and to take works which twice their number had 
 just failed to hold against the enemy. We were to 
 attack five times our number, and that, too, behind 
 strong works protected by timber felled in front. 
 
 "It was madness in our general; it was death to us, 
 sure death — ^total annihilation. The order was given. 
 
114 Samuel Chapman Atmsttongf 
 
 ' Forward !' Off we went cheerfully to our doom. I 
 never felt more calm and ready for anything, but just 
 as we had advanced a few yards another general came 
 up and ordered us to halt and not attack. He saved 
 us. He was General Terry." 
 
 By the end of August the Ninth Regiment was 
 encamped before Petersburg. The army, though 
 commanded by Grant, was in a demoralized con- 
 dition, owing in part to the recent defeat at Cold 
 Harbor and in part to the low character of our 
 boimty-paid troops, who were constantly arriving 
 as reenforcements. The insubordination of the 
 white troops probably did not extend to the colored, 
 who had their separate quarters and messes, and 
 whose officers were, as has been said, men of unusual 
 courage and character. 
 
 Armstrong was marked even among his fellow 
 officers for his daring. While encamped before 
 Petersburg he selected for his men a sheltered 
 ravine out of reach of the enemy's gims, while he 
 himself pitched his tent on an elevation close by, 
 across which the enemy's cannon-balls were con- 
 tinually ricochetting, placing him in hourly peril 
 by day and night. He felt that the morale of 
 the colored troops could only be maintained by a 
 commander who showed himself superior to fear. 
 As illustrating this habitual self-command a brother 
 officer relates the following incident: Armstrong 
 came into his tent one day, having ridden from his 
 own quarters during a severe shelling, and remarked 
 
Life in the Atmy. J 862- J 865 115 
 
 that a shell had burst directly in front of him. " I 
 instinctively reined in my horse!" he said, as if 
 apologizing for an act of cowardice. 
 
 "Although a martinet in discipline where military 
 principle was concerned," says the same officer, 
 " his soldiers felt toward him a regard that amounted 
 almost to deification." 
 
 The siege at Petersburg continued through 
 summer and fall, with but few sorties on either side, 
 the pickets alone keeping up a desultory warfare. 
 
 "In the Trenches Before Petersburg, 
 "August 30, 1864. 
 
 "The world moves on, and so do regiments. There 
 is nothing so unsettled as a soldier's camp or life; you 
 never know here what to expect. One fine afternoon 
 I was ordered to retake a portion of the picket line 
 from which our troops had fallen back. I went expect- 
 ing a fight. Charged the lost line with three companies, 
 but the enemy did not wait for us and ran without 
 even firing a piece. 
 
 "We had a beautiful little camp over the Appomat- 
 tox near Bermuda Hundred, at Hatchett's. I have 
 everything as regular and handsome and clean as pos- 
 sible, and my camps are not only the cleanest, but the 
 handsomest in the brigade. I always work quickly, 
 and give clear, positive instructions to my officers, 
 and they obey my orders with utmost fidelity as a 
 general thing. Here is an instance. Yesterday our 
 sister and rival regiment, the Seventh United States 
 Colored Troops, and my own, the Ninth United States 
 Colored Troops, were ordered to establish permanent 
 camps in the second line of works. I went to work 
 
ii6 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 and in four hours had strong, massive bomb-proofs 
 built. The other regiment had only burrowed a few 
 holes in the dirt, and when last night we were heavily 
 shelled, my men were as safe and comfortable as they 
 could have been in Kawaiahao church, while the other 
 regiments arovmd us were crawling into holes and 
 dodging about, well scared. 
 
 "The fact was, I sent my men out and 'gobbled up* 
 all the spades, axes and logs in the neighborhood. 
 During this shelling I sat in my tent, where I am now 
 writing, and lifting my eyes could see the mortar shells 
 gliding like meteors through the sky; some going and 
 some coming. Several shells burst quite near us, not 
 over I GO yards off. On such occasions I seldom seek 
 shelter, although I require my men to take it. The 
 chances of an individual are very great, and besides 
 there is nothing very dangerous about shells unless 
 they begin to drop close by. It is a splendid sight to 
 see shelling at night, to watch a huge 13 -inch mortar 
 shell shoot far up into the heavens and then seem to 
 glide awhile among the stars, a ball of light, then 
 slowly descend in terror and vengeance into the heart 
 of a great city whose spires are in sight from here. . . ." 
 
 "I forgot in my last to tell you about the flag of 
 truce in our campaign at Deep Bottom, over the James 
 River. It was to bury our dead, and being in command 
 of our picket line that day, I was present. We met 
 the rebels half-way between the lines. I saw thousands 
 of them swarming their works, and scores came to 
 meet us, bringing on stretchers the ghastly, horribly 
 mutilated dead whom we had lost in the charge of the 
 day previous. The sight and smell would have made 
 you wild, but we are used to it. I had no particular 
 business, and so I talked with the rebel officers and 
 found myself conversing with Colonel Little, of the 
 
Life in the Army. J 862- J 865 117 
 
 Eleventh Georgia Regiment, and with the rebel General 
 Gary. They were very gentlemanly, and we had a 
 delightful chat, or rather argument, of two hours; 
 the Colonel being very social and jovial, and the General 
 trying hard to convince me that slavery is divine and 
 that I was wrong. I frankly told him that I was a 
 foreigner, a Sandwich Islander, who had no local 
 sympathies; but seeing the great issue to be that of 
 freedom or slavery for 4,000,000 souls, had given myself 
 to the war cheerfully, and counted no sacrifice too 
 great for the cause. I told them I commanded a 
 colored regiment, and all this, instead of disgusting 
 them, seemed to win their respect; rather unusual, 
 Gince officers of Negro troops are commonly despised 
 in the South. 
 
 " The General said he thought it more reasonable 
 to fight, as I was doing, for a principle than to fight 
 merely to restore a Union which was only a compact 
 and to which they were not morally bound when they 
 considered the other side had violated the agreement. 
 The truth is, I partially agreed with him. The Union 
 is to me little or nothing. I see no great principle 
 necessarily involved in it. I see only the 4,000,000 
 slaves, and for and with them I fight. The rebs told 
 me they buried a good many of our colored men, for 
 they were the very men we had fought the day before. 
 
 "Well, the General tried to show me the evils of 
 slavery were imaginary, that it is divine and all right, 
 etc. His manner and language were charming. He 
 '.vas a graduate of Harvard (class of '54, I believe). 
 He did not. hovvrever, admit that slavery was the corner- 
 stone of the Confederacy, and he further assured me 
 that Alexander Stephens, who used that famous 
 expression about slavery being the corner-stone, etc., 
 liad retracted his language ai a subsequent time, 
 
ii8 Samuel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 and his opinion is, I think, strongly supported in 
 the South." 
 
 The period spent in the trenches before Petersburg 
 was a time of heavy responsibilities for Armstrong. 
 He was obliged to work day and night strengthening 
 and improving the works held by his brigade; and 
 at the end of this time, about October ist, when 
 his regiment was removed from Petersburg and sent 
 to a point very near the rebel lines, seven miles from 
 Richmond, he succumbed to fatigue and went to 
 the officers' hospital near Fort Monroe, only a few 
 rods from the scenes of his later life-work. While 
 he was there his regiment was sent to attack Fort 
 Gilmer, one of the main defenses of Richmond. 
 Concerning this attack he wrote home as follows : 
 
 "My regiment was sent alone and unsupported to 
 attack a tremendously powerfid fort supported by two 
 other strong forts, also by a heavy line of breastworks, 
 and before this immense line was a very large, deep 
 ditch and slashed timber for over half a mile, making 
 it almost impossible to even get to the enemy's lines. 
 The Ninth went in nobly, was raked and cut to pieces, 
 and finally fell back before a hellish fire of grape, 
 canister, shrapnel and shell from three forts. 
 
 "To go forward would have been certain destruction. 
 The Negroes never turned their backs, but walked 
 steadily 'into the mouth of hell' until the commanding 
 officer ordered a retreat. About one-third of the 
 regiment was hors de combat. No men were ever 
 braver than the slaves of Maryland. I was of course 
 absent, but the officers of the regiment were heard after 
 
SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG 
 Taken about the time of his sojourn at the officers' hospital at Plampton, Va. 
 
Life in the Afmy* J 862- J 865 119 
 
 they came back to curse the general who managed 
 them so badly, and to 'thank God that Colonel Arm- 
 strong was not there, for if he had been there they 
 would all have been in hell or Richmond.' They don't 
 expect to get the order from me to retreat. I only tell 
 the truth when I tell you that I am numbered among 
 the fighting men. Still I think I should never sacrifice 
 my men for nothing; such a course is wrong morally." 
 
 On returning to the field he was put for a short 
 time in command of the second brigade of his 
 division, and on November 3d was promoted to the 
 colonelcy of the Eighth United States Colored 
 Troops, which were stationed close to the borders 
 of Richmond. Of this new command he wrote : 
 
 "The men are tried soldiers, and it is considered the 
 best colored regiment in Birney's division. I have 
 a splendid camp and a very fine brass band — ^the only 
 one in the division. Men all live in log houses, so do I. 
 Have cozy fireplaces, where we sit and think hour after 
 hour or read. The 'Household Book of Poetry' is 
 everything to me; it is my constant friend, but unluckily 
 books are scarce, and it is in great demand. It is now 
 on a visit to headquarters first brigade of my division, 
 and my own brigade commander sends frequently for 
 it, and others — all wish to get it. The collection is, I 
 think, a superb one. One of the sweetest things in 
 it is 'Lycidas,' by Milton. Have you noticed the 
 'Trailing Arbutus,' by Rose Terry? The last stanza 
 is exquisite. 
 
 "There is some talk of arming my regiment with 
 the famous and deadly Spencer repeating rifle. The 
 rebels are in terror of it, and it is given to but very 
 
I20 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 few regiments in the army. It is very elaborate and 
 expensive. 
 
 "We are kept constantly on the qui vive. The 
 enemy is near. I can sit at my tent door and see their 
 long line of earthworks, with immensely strong 
 forts thrown in every quarter of a mile. Their guns are 
 pointed at us and ours at them. I can see their tents 
 easily. They can at any time throw a i co-pound shell 
 right into my camp, yes, a dozen of them; we are in easy 
 artillery range, but both sides seem to have tacitly 
 agreed not to fire, and so we Uve on, perfectly at ease 
 and always ready. The pickets stand watching each 
 other some 300 yards apart, often much less. During 
 the last two nights they have attacked our lines at 
 Bermuda Hundred and got us all up, which was not 
 agreeable. . . . 
 
 "I have a splendid regiment and a splendid oppor- 
 tunity; shall do or die; shall be distinguished or 
 extinguished — that is, if I shall have the chance." 
 
 But the chance never came. Winter and the 
 war drew together to a close. April 3d Petersburg 
 was evacuated, and on April 9th Lee, unable to 
 escape from the tightening lines of the Union forces, 
 saw that he could not save Richmond, and signed 
 terms of capitulation. Armstrong witnessed the 
 surrender and thus describes it : 
 
 "Appomattox Court House, Virginia, 
 
 "April 9, 1863. 
 
 "God is great! To-day, by His help, the great 
 
 Confederate General and his army have surrendered 
 
 unconditionally. I have yust been viewing from a 
 
Life in the Army. J 862- J 865 121 
 
 near eminence the captive host, the artillery and 
 wagon trains. 
 
 "Yesterday General Custer took all the_^upj>lies sent 
 from Lynchburg to Lee's army; our ar^y"^ closed in 
 around the rebels, and this morning they found them- 
 selves surrounded and without provisions. Early we 
 advanced and our skirmish lines met those of the 
 enemy. Mine drove not only the rebel skirmishers, 
 but also their line of battle. We expected a fight — 
 I never felt more like it. I mounted my noble stallion 
 and was ready to lead on at the word. A few bullets 
 whistled around, a few shells passed over — the rebs 
 gave way — all was quiet, there was a rumor of sur- 
 render; we waited; other rumors came, and finally it 
 was certain that the cruel war was over. The first 
 inkling I had of it was the continuous cheering of troops 
 on our right. Soon staff officers galloped up with the 
 news that Lee was making terms of surrender; the 
 firing ceased. It was impossible to realize that the 
 terrible army of Lee was in existence no longer ! The 
 truth was stunning. As for myself, I felt a sadness, a 
 feeling that the colored soldiers had not done enough, 
 been sufficiently proved. We just missed a splendid 
 chance of taking a rebel battery an hour before Sheldon's 
 cavalry came tumbling back — the rebs were driving 
 them, and we were put in to arrest their advance, which 
 we easily did, for they no sooner saw us than they 
 halted and retired before our skirmishers. This delay 
 lost us our chance." 
 
 Although, he now received a brevet title of 
 brigadier-general of volunteers, and commanded 
 brigades for some months to come, he never while 
 in the army wore his brigadier's stars, using the 
 
122 Samwel Chapman Afmstrongf 
 
 familiar colonel's eagles. When a friend questioned 
 him about this habit, he laughed and said: "Oh, I 
 guess I'll stick to the old birds." 
 
 In spite of the fact that the Civil War was over, 
 the colored troops were not at once disbanded. 
 Mexico had also been in the throes of civil war, 
 and the insuigents were plotting for the overthrow 
 of the Emperor Maximilian. To lend friendly 
 support to the republican insurgents and to secure 
 our own boundary lines during the confusion it was 
 decided to send a small force to the Mexican border. 
 Of this force Armstrong's regiment, the Eighth 
 United States Colored Troops, was a part, and May 
 30, 1865, he embarked for Texas, writing a month 
 later to his mother as follows: 
 
 "We had a most delightful run from the fort to 
 Mobile Harbor. Most of the way the sea was perfectly 
 smooth, and I was very little seasick. We took the 
 'outside passage'; passed 'Memory Rock,' the Bahama 
 Islands, Key West and the 'Dry Tortugas.' 
 
 "You can hardly imagine how glorious it was to sit 
 on one of the huge paddle-boxes at sunset — seeing the 
 sun go down, the western sky draped in the most 
 gorgeous cloud - tapestry — the ship gliding swiftly 
 through a glassy sea — a brass band discoursing rich 
 music, and a scene of life and pleasure on board. The 
 nights were warm and many of us slept on deck, subject, 
 however, to the inconvenience of being roused very 
 early when the ship was washed down. 
 
 "It is no easy matter to regulate a thousand men 
 crowded on shipboard, unused to the sea, sick or uneasy 
 or irritated with ennui. Still, our voyage passed off 
 
Life in the Army* J862-J865 123 
 
 very well — the men were kept clean and were fed. I 
 used to have them stripped, 100 at a time, put in the 
 forward part of the ship and then had the hose play on 
 them." 
 
 As they approached the mouth of the Rio Grande 
 River, in order to land at Brazos Santiago, the first 
 stopping-place, a shipwreck occurred in which his 
 whole expedition nearly came to a disastrous end. 
 
 On attempting to land, they found the sea 
 running very high near the river's mouth. Arm- 
 strong left the ship and went ashore to select a 
 camp-ground and assist from the shore side in 
 landing his men. 
 
 "I then took my position on a pile of lumber to watch 
 my regiment come ashore, it having been transferred 
 to a large schooner in order to get over the bar, which 
 is very shallow and across which the surf breaks. 
 Indeed, this is an ugly coast and is strewn with wrecks. 
 There is a sand bar and a line of breakers for hundreds 
 of miles along this shore. 
 
 "The surf was running high, and lying well over, 
 under a stiff breeze, the vessel stood in for the bar. I 
 had heard it stated that she drew too much water to 
 pass the bar, and knew that the best pilot in port 
 refused to bring her in. The schooner came tearing in, 
 but all at once she stopped, her sails shivered, and 
 there she lay among the breakers with my regiment on 
 board and darkness just coming on. 
 
 "I never in my life was more distressed or helpless. 
 Got a boat's crew to pull me out toward the wreck, but 
 it was impossible to reach her. She was fairly crowded 
 with men and I expected to lose half at least of them. 
 
124 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 She drifted and thumped along, however, toward the 
 remains of an old steamer, the Nassau, formerly 
 wrecked in Banks's expedition, and whose engine was 
 partly out of water. The greatest danger was that 
 the schooner would drift against this wreck and break 
 to pieces. This was at eleven o'clock at night." 
 
 He found some Italian boatmen who undertook 
 to unload the steamer, but looking about for a 
 quicker means of saving his men he found a large 
 metallic life-boat, perfectly sotmd, which had drifted 
 ashore. This he manned with his own officers and 
 men, and in spite of a recently broken arm took 
 the steering-oar himself and put out to the schooner. 
 
 "It was most exciting and difficult, as my right arm 
 is nearly useless for hard work. The rollers would 
 come in and pick up my boat and carry it like a shot 
 for a few rods, and as it was so short and light it was 
 difficult to keep it in the right position. I wonder I did 
 not break my arm or get stunned or swamped, for the 
 oar would sometimes be snapped out of my hand, and 
 the boat would slew around and I could barely fix her 
 for the next wave. The surf kept increasing, and my 
 little boat would sometimes stand uj), almost, or be 
 lost in spray. But nothing serious happened till the 
 schooner broke away and drifted up so close that the 
 men jumped off. 
 
 "The discipline of the men never broke, but every 
 man stood at his post till called for. Those on shore 
 were organized into parties for seizing the boats as the 
 waves swept them in, generally half full of water; 
 helped the men out, bailed out the boats and started 
 us oflE again for the ship. Others were boiling coffee 
 
Life in the Atmy. J862-J865 125 
 
 for the wet and drenched troops ; the Chaplain dealt out 
 whisky. All those working were stripped to the waist 
 and barefoot. Officers and men pulled oars side by- 
 side It was exciting. 
 
 "At last, after I had got about 400 men off in boats, 
 the schooner drifted close in and the troops jumped 
 off, throwing their knapsacks overboard and jumping 
 after them. I only lost about ten guns and twenty 
 knapsacks, and no lives." 
 
 Brazos Santiago is a long, low island, entirely 
 destitute of verdure and below the level of the 
 highest winter tides. 
 
 "There is no wood to be had, no water in the region. 
 We use condensed water often while it is warm, or the 
 water of the Rio Grande, which is nine miles off and is 
 brought here in schooners. It is very nasty just now, 
 as the river is swollen. 
 
 "At one time there were 10,000 troops here three days, 
 and 2,000 gallons of water per day supplied. Some of 
 my regiment walked to the Rio Grande, loaded with 
 canteens and dragging a barrel for water. There was 
 much suffering. 
 
 "We get no fresh vegetables or vegetables of any 
 kind and seldom secure fresh meat. Our men are 
 worked to death unloading vessels, and we are all 
 disgusted and greatly provoked and are fast getting 
 demoralized. We seldom receive letters or newspapers 
 — nothing ever happens. 
 
 "We expect to move soon up the Rio Grande, but 
 here there are no mosquitoes or sand-flies. Further up 
 there are swarms of flies and mosquitoes and 'swifts' 
 and snakes. The 'prickly pear' covers the whole 
 country. The prospect is dismal, withering, though, 
 
126 Samttel Chapman Armstfong; 
 
 speaking for myself, I am not feeling very uneasy or 
 demoralized." 
 
 By August the regiment, with one other, was 
 encamped at Ringgold Barracks, where it remained 
 till early in October, This was a dull but healthful 
 spot, and as the ofScers became acquainted with the 
 people they varied the monotony of camp life by 
 giving balls and dinners to their friends. One of 
 the latter occasions he described to his sister: 
 
 "To-day I gave a dinner to the commander of the 
 Liberal forces in the north of Mexico and his staff. 
 I had invited him to come and bring a few friends, 
 expecting about five in all. A small army came. A 
 great cloud of dust announced their coming and made 
 us tremble. We were amazed, confounded, dumb ! 
 Were we to feed a regiment ? Your brother Samuel 
 was in a fix about that time. I hadn't invited the 
 whole army, yet it came. The General dismounted. 
 We rushed (literally) into each other's arms, the Mexican 
 expression of cordiality. I hugged half a score of these 
 Indians. My own field and staff officers did the same. 
 Oh, what a funny scene ! None of them could talk 
 English; we couldn't talk Spanish. A weasel-faced 
 quack doctor (surgeon-general of the army) acted as 
 interpreter. Polite inquiries were exchanged and diplo- 
 matic observations (and lies) passed and repassed. 
 My line tents (ten large wall tents) were nearly filled 
 and I had in my tent the only interpreter. There was 
 lots of glorious good feeling and lots of hugging and 
 clinking of glasses, and bows and grimaces, and then 
 more hugging and lively conversation on a very small 
 stock of words, not over a dozen (in Spanish). But 
 
Life in the Army. tZ62-iS65 127 
 
 the dinner ! Ghosts of all housekeepers, embodied and 
 disembodied ! The day of miracles being past and a 
 detts ex machina coming down on only a few favored 
 stages, we had to resort to substantial and ordinary 
 means. 
 
 "We dined ten at a time. I took the principal 
 men to the first table, which was set under a canvas 
 covering, and which was decorated with a common reed 
 much resembling sorghum; sorghum on the floor, over- 
 head, and on every side. 
 
 "Think of a May party or a Fourth-of-July picnic 
 with sorghum boughs and wreaths ! We had, after 
 all, a 'right smart' dinner, and of course the proper 
 toasts were proposed and responded to, all of which 
 was exceedingly novel and rich. I spoke on behalf 
 of the American people; made touching allusions 
 to the national sympathy, kicked old 'Max' out of 
 the halls of the Montezumas, and made my chief 
 guest the hero and martyr of Mexican liberty, all of 
 which was put into Spanish and swallowed (?). 
 Some attended dress parade. Others sat down at 
 the table, and then the regimental band performed. 
 Everybody grinned and said, ' Muchisima gusta,' which 
 means 'infinite pleasure.' 
 
 " It being nearly dark, our guests took their departure 
 amid the most overwhelming assurances of mutual 
 satisfaction and violent caressing. I hugged General 
 EvSpinoza five times before he departed, and embraced 
 more than I have any recollection of. 
 
 "This hugging is delightful. I wish it were gener- 
 ally introduced. Confound the formality of our society ! 
 Let society learn the etiquette of the heart on the 
 banks of the Rio Grande — dethrone the head that 
 now rules ! And so they departed amid the ' adios ' of 
 everybody and 'Hail, Columbia' from the band." 
 
128 Samtjel Chapman Afmstrong 
 
 From the same place he wrote : 
 
 "Camp Eighth United States Colored Troops. 
 "Ringgold Barracks, Texas, 
 
 "August 23, 1865. 
 "I find that I am not polite and accomplished. I 
 aim rather to be just and manly, and patiently seek 
 to realize the higher, more heroic qualities. These are 
 a guarantee of success, not what is commonly called so, 
 but of that fulness and completeness in character that 
 gives an inner and calm and rich assurance that one is 
 a true man and makes one satisfied no matter how 
 circumstances may change. This inner strength is 
 the thing, and it is completed, perfected and made 
 glorious by religion. Thus one, though poor and 
 unnoticed, may be greater, grander and far more 
 beautiful than anything that is made of the costliest 
 stone. Men are as a rule heathens; we adore as many 
 absurdities as the Hindoos; society impels us to a false 
 manhood, as false as it can be. Here it is easier to be 
 manly, to cultivate noble aspirations than in the most 
 pious New England village. A greasy, dirty Mexican, 
 fighting for the liberty of his country, inspires me more 
 than the whole faculty of Andover Theological Seminary 
 would. Don't let us pity the Zulus and the Eskimo 
 too much. We are almost as blind as they — they by 
 darkness, we by too much light. Soldiering has some- 
 times set me to thinking. My few opportunities in the 
 army have been of far more use to me than the abundant 
 measure I had before. When a meeting-house burns 
 up I care very little; under the trees it is better — under 
 the evening sky as the sun goes down in glory (as we 
 worship) is the grandest time and place for it. I am 
 terribly down on two sermons every Sunday. The 
 drawing-out process is the best and truest. Set the 
 
Life in the Atmy* 1862-1865 129 
 
 people to work and the ministers to chewing tobacco if 
 necessary to make them Hke other men, not still and 
 mannerish, but open, free, hearty and happy. A good 
 hearty, healthy laugh is as bad for the devil as some of 
 the long nasal prayers I have heard — yes, worse. There 
 is religion in music, in the opera. Tell me anjrthing 
 more sacred than the prayer in 'Freischutz' (I spell it 
 wrong)- — * Benedictus, ' it is called. Is there anything 
 purer than the tender, passionate strains of ' Norma ' ? 
 Ministers say the opera is bad; I find religion there. 
 They say to walk or ride out on Sunday is wicked. 
 My bethel is by the seashore ; there the natural language 
 of my heart is prayer. So of the motmtains. 
 
 "Good people try to do too much to dodge the devil 
 and to build up a wall to keep him out. What does he 
 do? He helps build the wall. Meet him squarely; 
 fight the inner battle of self, and outward forms — 
 moralities— will take care of themselves. Allow young 
 people to doubt — doubt anything and ever5rthing — 
 don't crush doubt, because you crush conviction too. 
 The Hawaiian missionaries have made terrible mistakes 
 in this way." 
 
 Early in October he was ordered to Brownsville, 
 Texas, and after a few weeks' stay there received 
 his discharge. 
 
 Many were the plans for future work which filled 
 his mind during these his last days in the army. 
 A lieutenant-colonelcy in the First United States 
 Colored Cavalry was offered him, but he did not 
 care for that kind of work. His brothers suggested 
 business openings, and he himself had some thoughts 
 of entering the Freedmen's Bureau, then just 
 
130 Samwel Chapman Armsttong 
 
 becoming prominent in work for the Negro. The 
 world must have spread a very agreeable prospect 
 to the yoimg soldier, well born, well educated and 
 full of physical vigor; peace brought with it new 
 prosperity, and everywhere he saw room for men of 
 enterprise. To his mother he wrote : 
 
 "I have asked Baxter to let me know what openings 
 there are in California, either of lucrative business or of 
 other kind. I may go to New York City if Will can get 
 me fixed off there. I expect to begin at the bottom of 
 the ladder and work along. Don't expect to study a 
 profession. I think I shall get into the right place 
 by and by." 
 
 The third anniversary of his enlistment, a few 
 weeks before he was discharged, brought with it a 
 new conception of what the future might hold in 
 store for him. 
 
 "To-day, September ist, has been quiet and serene. 
 A good deal of business, but steady and easy. But one 
 eventful thing has occurred. My lieutenant-colonel, 
 major and myself were in conversation together in my 
 tent. The subject of citizenship was mentioned, and 
 one remarked that by act of Congress to serve in the 
 army three years was to become an American citizen. 
 I at once remembered that yesterday I had been just 
 three years in the United States service, and this 
 morning for the first time walked out into the sunlight 
 and air a citizen of the Grand Republic. The thought 
 was tremendous ! To be forever imder the shelter of 
 the broad pinions of the American eagle ! To be one 
 of the mighty brood of that glorious bird; to sing 
 
Life in the Atmy. J 862- J 865 131 
 
 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee'; to call 'the flag of my 
 country' that glorious banner that has for four years 
 been wreathed in smoke and torn and stained in count- 
 less battles, and now finally and forever triumphant — 
 this is a thought too immense to be grappled at once, 
 but enough to excite the profotmdest emotions. We 
 all rose to our feet and I embraced each of the two who 
 were with me, and we all thought it was very jolly. 
 I have thrown off the ' kapa'* mantle and assumed the 
 toga of the Republic. 
 
 "There may be a place for me in the struggle for 
 right and wrong in this country." 
 
 At this critical time in his career his thoughts 
 turned more and more from making m.oney in some 
 well-chosen business enterprise toward the service 
 of his tellow men. He wrote : 
 
 "I have not given myself to arms, although I have 
 been one of the most forttmate of soldiers. I have 
 chosen no profession, nor do I at present think I 
 shall study one. 
 
 '°My capabilities are of an executive nature, and I 
 shall seek some chance of usefulness where I can use 
 my talents to the most advantage and for the cause 
 of humanity. 
 
 "My purpose is to serve the Great Master in some 
 way as well as I can ; to be of use to my fellow men ; to 
 give the life so marvellously spared and wonderfully 
 blessed to the source of all mercy and blessing. I 
 shall probably not enter the ministry; am not made 
 for a preacher. I should rather minister than be a 
 minister." 
 
 * Cloth made by native Hawaiians. 
 
132 Samuel Chapman Armstfong; 
 
 Certainly he regarded the iincertainties of the 
 future with no dread. 
 
 "There is something in this standing face to face with 
 destiny, looking into its darkness, that is inspiring; 
 it appeals to manhood; it is thrilling, like going into 
 action." 
 
O ■•" 
 
 H ha 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 The Freedmen's Bureau. 1866-1872 
 
 After his discharge, Armstrong went to New 
 York, where he spent several weeks with his brother. 
 Toward the close of winter he made his way to 
 Washington with some thought of applying for a 
 government position, but what he saw of politi- 
 cal office-seeking in the President's waiting-room 
 so disgusted him that he gave up this idea, and 
 remembering his former plan of work for the Negro 
 in the South, applied to the Bureau of Refugees, 
 Freedmen and Abandoned Lands for a position. 
 
 The Freedmen's Bureau had come into being in 
 response to the crying needs of the Negroes left help- 
 lessly adrift during the closing months of the war 
 when the Emancipation Proclamation had loosened 
 home ties and there appeared neither refuge for 
 the suffering women, children and infirm nor occu- 
 pation for the able-bodied. It was made a depart- 
 ment of Government by act of Congress, 1865, 
 and put under the leadership of General O. O. 
 Howard, who, as Commissioner, alone directed 
 its operations and selected the men that were to 
 do its work. 
 
 This work General Howard describes as follows: 
 133 
 
134 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 "The first consideration was how to do the work 
 before us. The plantations were all left imcultivated ; 
 some were abandoned, all had lost their slaves. People 
 said, 'We can't raise cotton with only free labor.' 
 Our task was to show them they could. I started some 
 joint stock companies from the North. Northern 
 capital undertook the work. The result was, more 
 cotton was raised the first year after the war than had 
 been raised in any one year before. Other years were 
 not as successful, but the point was proved and an 
 impulse given to free labor. 
 
 "Another work we had to do was to settle the rela- 
 tions between the former master and ex-slave. Troubles 
 were continually arising. To settle these we estab- 
 lished courts made up of one agent of the Freedmen's 
 Bureau, one man selected by the whites and one by the 
 Negroes. These courts settled all such difficulties till 
 finally the courts themselves were transferred to the 
 State and local authorities upon condition of the recep- 
 tion of Negro testimony. 
 
 "Then there were the land troubles. When the 
 owners abandoned their plantations the colored people 
 settled on them — lived in their houses and used the 
 land. 
 
 "Most of the land was given back to the owners 
 by the Government, under our direction and advice. 
 It was often hard on the colored people. I was sorry 
 for them and would have liked sometimes to do differ- 
 ently. Yet I believe it was on the whole better for them. 
 It put them at the bottom of the ladder. 
 
 "Then we had a hospital department. That was 
 for the old and decrepit men and women and the sick 
 and disabled who could not take care of themselves. 
 We had also a department to establish asylums for the 
 little children whose fathers had been killed in the 
 
The Freedmen's Butcau* J 866- 1 872 135 
 
 war or who had strayed from their homes and been 
 lost, as many had. 
 
 "But the main point we had to attend to was the 
 care of the schools." * 
 
 The bureau, with its three departments, eco- 
 nomic, charitable and educational, thus held com- 
 plete control over the doings and prospects of the 
 ex-slave. It was a government within a govern- 
 ment, held closely together by an elaborate system 
 of reports from subordinate to superior and directly 
 responsible to its own Commissioner only. 
 
 Many besides Samuel Armstrong were looking 
 to the Freedmen's Bureau for the solution of the 
 problems that were vexing the nation. What 
 should be done with the Negro? How secure to 
 him his new political rights? How befriend with- 
 out pauperizing him? How fit him to care for 
 himself ? 
 
 People everywhere in the North were asking 
 these questions — people who were not involved 
 in the vortex of political jobbery that surrounded 
 Washington, who had borne the strain of the war 
 for conscience's sake and who were now prepared to 
 shoulder the responsibilities that followed it; and 
 they waited for the Freedmen's Bureau to present 
 effective answers to these questions — answers that 
 should settle the status of the Negro in the South 
 in a permanent and satisfying way. This was not 
 
 * Address delivered by General Howard at Hampton Insti- 
 tute, 1889. 
 
136 Samuel Chapman Atmsttong 
 
 the only way in which it was proposed to meet the 
 needs of the Negro ; deportation to Africa, segrega- 
 tion of the Negroes in one or two States and in in- 
 dustrial communities managed by the Government 
 were suggested, but the people in general looked to 
 the Freedmen's Bureau to show the way out. 
 
 While this organization combined such differing 
 forms of activity, the workers in it themselves pre- 
 sented also varied aspects of character and fitness. 
 Some men and women more zealous than well in- 
 formed sought in it an outlet to their charitable 
 desires; others, less zealous, found lucrative posi- 
 tions at the expense of their charges ; however, many 
 intelligent and public-spirited persons were installed 
 under its direction. 
 
 General Howard's policy was to place officers of 
 the regular army at the most responsible points, 
 while civilians were usually employed as agents at 
 less important centers ; and when Samuel Armstrong 
 applied, with a letter from his late chief of staff 
 and his brilliant record as an officer of colored 
 troops, he was received favorably. 
 
 Concerning the interview General Howard writes : 
 
 "Though already a general, General Armstrong 
 seemed to me very young. His quick motions and 
 nervous energy were apparent then. He spoke rapidly 
 and wanted matters decided if possible on the spot. 
 I was then very favorably impressed with his knowledge 
 and sentiment toward the freedmen, and thought he 
 would make a capital sub-commissioner." 
 
The Freedmen's Butea,u» J 866- J 872 137 
 
 There was no vacancy in the department, however, 
 and Armstrong left the office, visited friends and 
 decided to return to New York. But before leaving 
 Washington he again called, satchel in hand, at the 
 office of the Freedmen's Bureau to see if an opening 
 had presented itself since his former visit. As he 
 entered the office one of the aides looked up and 
 said: "We've a great lot of contrabands down on 
 the Virginia Peninsula and can't manage them; no 
 one has had success in keeping them straight. 
 General Howard thinks you might try it." Another 
 conversation with that officer resulted in Armstrong's 
 receiving a double appointment — as agent under the 
 Freedmen's Bureau, having control over ten counties, 
 the fifth sub-district of Virginia, and also as superin- 
 tendent of schools, or Bureau Superintendent, over 
 a large, loosely defined area. 
 
 As agent he was one of eight men who controlled 
 the fortunes of the Negroes and to a certain extent 
 of the whites throughout the State of Virginia, 
 each of the eight holding a district of from six to 
 twelve counties and reporting to Colonel Orlando 
 Brown, at Richmond, who held the office of Assistant 
 Commissioner, As Bureau Superintendent, Arm- 
 strong was one of several men holding that office 
 in the State, but he alone usually reported directly 
 to General Howard on all matters connected with 
 the education of the freedmen. General Howard 
 urged that he now officially use the title of General, 
 thinking that it would help him to secure the imme- 
 
138 Samttel Chapman Armsttong 
 
 diate respect of his subordinates, many of whom were 
 army officers, when he, a yoiing man of twenty- 
 seven, appeared among them as their superior. 
 
 About March 15, 1866, Armstrong arrived at Fort 
 Monroe and rode a few miles to his post at the village 
 of Hampton. Hampton is beautifully situated near 
 the mouth of a short tidal river and was once one 
 of the finest towns in the South, but several years 
 before Armstrong's arrival had been burned to the 
 ground, and only massive chimneys, with gaping 
 fireplaces, remained to mark the site of former 
 pleasant homes. The contrabands, like weeds 
 springing up on burned ground, had swarmed over 
 the place, building huts or pitching tents against 
 the old chimneys. Within a radius of three miles 
 from his office lived 7,000 Negroes, camping in this 
 squalid fashion, waiting for they knew not what. 
 The immediately surrounding country imder his 
 control was a vast stretch of low, often marshy, 
 partially wooded land, dotted with hospital barracks 
 and log cabins, intersected by the muddy roads of 
 Virginia, and bounded on the east and north by the 
 waters of the Chesapeake Bay and the ocean. 
 
 Full of enthusiasm for his work and full of the 
 courage of youth, Armstrong settled himself in his 
 new home. He made his headquarters, with his staff 
 of assistants, at an old mansion near the residence 
 of the teachers employed by the American Mis- 
 sionary Association, and appeared as a conspicuous 
 figure among the isolated little group of Northerners 
 
The Ffecdmen's Buteati* iZ66-iZ72 139 
 
 working under difficult conditions, making many 
 mistakes, yet furthering as best they could what 
 they conceived to be the highest interests of the 
 community. 
 
 His associates trusted from the first that his 
 strong, straightforward methods would untangle 
 the network of political and social difficulties in 
 which they had been working. With a happy 
 temperament, an easy control of subordinates and 
 a natural gift for dealing with the Negroes, he 
 inspired general confidence and soon brought about 
 order throughout his district. 
 
 He wrote to his mother as follows : 
 
 "Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and 
 Abandoned Lands, 
 "Headquarters Superintendent Ninth District, Virginia. 
 "Fort Monroe, Virginia, June 2, 1866. 
 
 "Dear Mother: I have been on duty in the bureau 
 three months, and a singular experience it has been. 
 Providence seemed to put me in just the place I wanted. 
 
 "The work is very difficult; there are here, congre- 
 gated in little villages, some 5,000 colored people, 
 crowded, squalid, poor, and idle. It is my work to 
 scatter and renovate them; one in which much is ex- 
 pected, but very limited means are given. I think 
 I have secured the confidence of the people as well as 
 of my superiors, at least so far that I am the only 
 civilian in the whole bureau occupying a position of 
 superintendent, which is a special favor from General 
 Howard. All the rest are discharged. How long this 
 work will last I do not know — it mar soon die out, or 
 I may be discharged, or it may lead me to some other 
 
I40 Samttel Chapman Armsttong 
 
 work. I am uncertain of the future, but still am confi- 
 dent that all will be well. 
 
 "I am living in the so-called 'Massenburg house/ 
 once one of the stateliest of the beautiful village of 
 Hampton, now shorn of its glory — its greenhouse and 
 garden destroyed and its rooms turned into offices and 
 quarters. In the rear of the house is the bureau jail, 
 where I summarily stow away all sorts of people when 
 they are unruly — I have murderers, thieves, liars, and 
 all sorts of disorderly characters — a squad of soldiers 
 under my orders, who make quick work with any 
 troublesome people. I am quite independent and like 
 the position and the work. 
 
 "I have about a dozen officers under me, though I 
 am a civilian, and a glorious field of labor. I have 
 some thirty-four lady teachers from the North. Some 
 splendid people are helping me. 
 
 "This place is historic. A little above here is 
 Jamestown, in my district, where the first settlers came, 
 and the ruins of their church are standing. In my field 
 were fought many hard battles, and some of my own. 
 
 "This Hampton has been the city of refuge of the 
 Negroes throughout the war — here they came from all 
 Virginia to seek freedom, food and a home; hither 
 caravans daily poured in for months with young, old 
 and helpless, and here they built their little cabins and 
 i did what they could. 
 
 "Here were raised several colored regiments, which 
 took the men and left the women helpless — and oh, 
 the misery there has been — it can never be told ! But 
 the worst is over. The men came not back, since 
 most were killed, disabled or died, and here are their 
 families in my charge; and they are a great care; we 
 issue 18,000 rations a day to those who would die of 
 
The Freedmen's Bofeao. J 866- J 872 141 
 
 starvation were it not for this, and keep their children 
 at school, and get them work and prevent injustice. 
 Take us away and the Negroes might as well all be 
 hanged at once. 
 
 "There is not much peace; work comes on all days of 
 the week, Sundays not excepted, I like it — there is a 
 large field and lots to do. I am compelled to do some 
 speech-making — have held forth at divers times and 
 places to the darkies. Have to deah too, with some 
 cute, oily white men, smart as steel and smooth as 
 sycophants; it reminds me of the old times when I was 
 editor of the Hae Hawaii. 
 
 "I am going around to the county court-houses 
 where the Circuit Court holds session (next week) and 
 harangue the mobs. 
 
 "To-day is Sunday — went to meeting, sang in choir; 
 dine with Mrs. D . 
 
 "Yesterday I received a courteous note from a highly 
 
 accomplished and wealthy lady of New York, Miss W , 
 
 asking for two photographs of mine; one for Coimt de 
 Gasparin and one for Laboulaye of France, as one who 
 has drilled the colored troops; she is making a collec- 
 tion of United States officers for these gentlemen. 
 
 "You have no idea of what splendid oysters we have 
 here — ^the best in the world — cheap as dirt — and lots 
 of fish in summer; fine roads and rides. 
 
 "I will tell you my counties, so you can see my 
 domain on the map. They are these: Matthews, 
 Gloucester, York, Warwick, Elizabeth City, Charles 
 City, James City, New Kent, and King William counties. 
 
 "General Howard told me it was the hardest position 
 to fill he had: there is such ill feeling between whites 
 and blacks, so many paupers, so much idleness, and 
 such an enormous population. 
 
142 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 "Shine, ye lucky stars! 
 
 "There is a beautiful sheet of water before the vil- 
 lage — ^the scene of the fight between the Merrimac 
 and the Monitor; the naval rendezvous of the war 
 and twice the base of operations of the Army of the 
 Potomac. 
 
 "The work is splendid, and if God leads me as He has 
 done, I shall have nothing to fear — all will be well. 
 "I am known as General Armstrong by everybody." 
 
 He wrote later in an official report concerning 
 his work at Hampton : 
 
 "Colored squatters by thousands and General Lee's 
 disbanded soldiers returning to their families came 
 together in my district on hundreds of 'abandoned' 
 farms which the Government had seized and allowed 
 the freedmen to occupA'. There was irritation, but both 
 classes were ready to do the fair thing. It was about a 
 two years' task to settle matters by making terms 
 with the landowners, who employed many laborers 
 on their restored homes. Swarms went back to the 
 'old plantation' on passes, with thirty days' rations. 
 
 "Hardest of all was to settle the ration question; 
 about 2,000 having been fed for years were demoralized 
 and seemed hopeless. Notice was given that in three 
 months, on October i, 1866, all rations would be stopped 
 except to those in hospital, for whom full provision was 
 made. Trouble was expected, but there was not a 
 ripple of it or a complaint that day. Their resource 
 was surprising. The Negro in a tight place is a genius. 
 
 "In general," said he, "the whites were well disposed, 
 but inactive in suppressing any misconduct of the 
 
The Ffeedmen's Bwteaa. 1 866- J 872 143 
 
 lower class. Friendliness between the races was 
 general, broken only by political excitement, and was 
 due, I think, to the fact that they had been brought 
 up together, often in the most intimate way, from 
 childhood; a surprise to me, for on missionary ground 
 parents — with the spirit of martyrs — take every pains 
 to prevent contact of their children with the natives 
 around them. 
 
 "Martial law prevailed; there were no civil courts, 
 and for many months the bureau officer in each county 
 acted on all kinds of cases, gaining generally the confi- 
 dence of both races. When martial law was over and 
 the rest were everywhere discontinued, the military 
 court at Hampton was kept up by common consent for 
 about six months. 
 
 "Scattered families were reunited. From even 
 Louisiana — for the whole South was mapped out, each 
 county officered and as a rule wisely administered — 
 would come inquiries about the relatives and friends of 
 one who had been sold to traders years before, and great 
 justice and humanity were done in bringing together 
 broken households." 
 
 The Freedmen's Bureau was not the only agency 
 at work for the relief of the freedmen. Fourteen 
 different societies, distinct in operation though alike 
 in aim, had their agents at work in the South, 
 supplemented further by freedmen's departments 
 in the northern churches and private charity 
 acting through various channels. 
 
 Wherever the Negroes were found there were 
 gathered together missionaries, lady teachers, 
 soldiers, and cooperating with all, supplementing 
 
144 Samwel Chapman At-mstrong 
 
 their work and yet in authority over them all, 
 the Freedmen's Bureau. 
 
 There was much room for individual action among 
 the agents of the bureau. It was General Howard's 
 policy to set forth clearly to his subordinates, by 
 means of frequent circular letters, the general 
 policy to be pursued, and then to leave to their 
 discretion the execution of details. Thus the bureau 
 offered much scope to a man of executive powers, 
 while demanding the exercise of constant tact and 
 originality. 
 
 There was opportimity for pleasure as well as 
 routine work in this life, and that of a sort that 
 suited Armstrong's tastes exactly. He owned a 
 boat and often made tours of several days, accom- 
 panied only by a Negro boy, perhaps camping at 
 night and living on salt pork and hard tack.* These 
 excursions were often of a business nature, for the 
 purpose of inspecting schools and the work of sub- 
 
 *Froin one of these tours he wrote home the following reflec- 
 tions on the f)olitical situation: 
 
 "Let me animadvert briefly on the political situation. Repub- 
 licans are increasing since the election of Grant, and several 
 southern gentlemen about here are much more radical than I. 
 'When the devil was sick the devil a monk would be; when 
 the devil was well the devil a monk was he.' Scores are get- 
 ting down off the fence and are rushing wildly to the Republi- 
 can lines and already begin to talk of what they have suffered 
 for their principles. I was buttonholed this evening by a 
 devoted radical lately converted, who has confidential talks 
 with darkies 'behind houses and around comers,' and was 
 bored with an address upon 'the party,' its principles and its 
 meanest men, swallowed without a gulp — without a wink. 
 There are good, noble dogs and ' yaller ' mean dogs. So there 
 are yellow dogs, humanely speaking, who roll over on their 
 backs figuratively and wag their tails at the rulers of the hotir." 
 
The Ffcedmen's Bute&u. J866-J872 145 
 
 ordinates. He took other tours on horseback, and 
 while riding through the Virginia pine woods often 
 caught gHmpses of Negro Hfe and character, and 
 received impressions of the value of the obscure 
 work of faithful missionary teachers, who were 
 sources of true light to their flocks in the pine woods, 
 that proved of inestimable value to him in later life. 
 He had not been long at Hampton when a plan 
 which promised some relief for the immediate needs 
 of the freedmen suggested itself, and to many- 
 ladies in the neighborhood of Boston he sent the 
 following circular letter, which contains his first 
 mention of plans for industrial education: 
 
 "Bureau Refugees, Freedmen and 
 Abandoned Lands, 
 "Fort Monroe, April 16, 1866. 
 
 "My Dear Madam: I beg leave to make a few state- 
 ments to you regarding the condition of the colored 
 people in this place, in the hope that through your 
 influence their destitution and suffering may be in some 
 way relieved. 
 
 "There are in this vicinity about 1,700 infirm or 
 helpless men, women and children drawing rations 
 from Government, most of whom, should this aid be 
 withdrawn, would suffer extremely. 
 
 "Yet nearly one-half of these are in this dependent 
 condition solely because there is nothing for them to 
 do and they cannot go where there is work. Most are 
 women who have from one to five children apiece. 
 They are generally able-bodied, apt to learn and anxious 
 to get employment. 
 
 "I have thought that many northern families might 
 
146 Samuel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 be willing to take one of these women with one or two 
 children who are old enough not to be a great care to 
 the mother and are able to do something for them- 
 selves; especially in the country, the children might 
 make themselves very useful; they could be bound out 
 for a term of years and thus make a return for the 
 labor and expense of their bringing up. Mothers will 
 not leave their children, and in fact, from local as 
 well as family ties, it is very difficult to persuade 
 these women to go North or elsewhere. Yet they seem 
 anxious to work, and I am confident that many valuable 
 servants can be obtained here. . . . Their future 
 is dark, for the bureau cannot last long, and then they 
 must choose between starvation and crime. 
 
 "Just now hundreds of able-bodied men are thrown 
 out of employment by the oyster law lately passed by 
 the Legislature. It requires taxes and bonds, which 
 not one oysterman in a hundred can comply with, and 
 the penalties of violation are very severe — they tax 
 them $6.20 per annum per man, who has also to give 
 a bond of $500. ... I should have mentioned that 
 few trained cooks or house-servants can be got — that 
 class fled with their owners, who abandoned their silver 
 but kept their domestics. Those for whom I plead are 
 mostly field hands, with but a smattering of culinary 
 training. 
 
 "I wish some society at the North would undertake 
 to find places for some of them, also for their children, 
 and then communicate with me. 
 
 "Many might prefer to employ men and boys. The 
 Negro is a hostler constitutionally; he rides and drives 
 by instinct. A large number of such could be furnished. 
 
 "The daytime of our labor for the freed people is 
 short. The North has not as yet done its full duty 
 
The Freedmen's Bwreatt. J 866- 1 872 147 
 
 in this matter. I will gladly cooperate with any who 
 are disposed to take hold of this, and in some way and 
 to some extent we can, if we will, rescue many from ills 
 that would surely come to them. 
 
 "There is another and most important field for 
 philanthropic effort. It is the building up of industrial 
 schools. In order to do this, a teacher should be sent 
 whose annual support comes to about $300. She should 
 be supplied with suitable goods to be made up into 
 clothing by the colored girls and women. These for 
 their work receive an allowance of clothes — the balance 
 is given to the destitute, or sold at a low rate to those 
 able to pay. In this way a useful art is taught (cutting 
 and making clothing), well-earned clothing is received, 
 the destitute are provided for and are allowed to buy 
 cheap and excellent garments. 
 
 "I consider this work of great importance, but it is 
 almost neglected. Can you not persuade friends to 
 send through the American Missionary Society of 
 New York two or three teachers? This society has 
 quarters and other comforts already provided, and 
 thus there is an economy in sending through it." * 
 
 The permanent and only solution of the difficul- 
 ties that surrounded the ex-slaves became daily 
 clearer to him. In an official report, dated June 
 30, 1866, speaking of the indignation felt by the 
 Negroes at being ejected from the lands they had 
 squatted upon, which were restoredf to their former 
 owners, he writes: 
 
 'The freedmen hardly yet comprehend the fact of 
 
 A.S a result of this ] 
 ;ed in families near 1 
 
 fBy act of Congress. 
 
 *As a result of this letter about 1,000 Negroes were actually 
 placed in families near Cambridge and Boston. 
 
148 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 the restoration of lands, and cry out against the injustice 
 of it. They will not as a general rule be permitted 
 to remain, owing largely to their failure to pay rent. 
 , . Their inability or refusal to pay is due to 
 improvidence, or carelessness, or poverty, or to their not 
 comprehending the fact of restoration. Their minds 
 are in much confusion, and many have been honest in 
 refusing to pay. Many who do not would pay rent if 
 they believed it right to do so. . . . Freedmen as a 
 class are destitute of ambition; their complacency in 
 poverty and filth is a curse; discontent would lead to 
 determined effort and a better life. Many cling to 
 Hampton and stick to Virginia apparently to lay their 
 bones there when they have no more use for them. 
 'Born and bred here, bound to die here,' is often their 
 supremely stupid and pitiable answer when asked to 
 go elsewhere. Honest efforts on their behalf they 
 interpret into designs to reenslave them. No slave- 
 catcher was ever looked upon with more horror than the 
 clerk who recently sought orphans for the farm-school 
 at Washington. . . . These wild notions are the 
 result of ignorance, to which is mainly due the troubles 
 of the race. 
 
 "The education of the freedmen is the great work of 
 the day; it is their only hope, the only power that can 
 lift them up as a people, and I think every encourage- 
 ment should be given to schools established for their 
 benefit." 
 
 His thoughts were the more readily directed 
 toward education for the freedmen because his 
 especial work, that to which General Howard had 
 particularly assigned him, was the study of exist- 
 ing the limited educational opportunities and 
 
The Fteedmen's Bwfea«. 1 866- J 872 149 
 
 observing and reporting concerning the need for 
 others.* 
 
 There were already many thriving little schools 
 in his district. Here and there among the pine 
 woods or sandy reaches stood log cabins, whither 
 night after night patient Aunt Dinahs and Uncle 
 Toms, after laboring all day long, went to pore over 
 spelling book and arithmetic; or perhaps some 
 more pretentious building supported by the Ameri- 
 can Missionary Association, where bright little 
 colored children took their first steps in learning. 
 
 The zeal of the ex-slaves for learning was one of 
 the phenomena of the decade following the war, 
 and was one of the tendencies least understood by 
 their northern friends. It was thought to indicate a 
 well-considered wish on their part to supply their 
 own mental deficiencies, while in reality it in general 
 merely indicated the imitative faculty which led 
 them to do those things which they had seen done 
 
 *He was required by his position as Superintendent of Schools 
 to state the location of all those within his district, the names 
 of teachers employed in them, the number of pupils in each, 
 the name of the owner of the school-building, and of the educa- 
 tional society by which it was supported. He was further 
 required to make original investigations tending to the estab- 
 lishment of schools under the direct auspices of the Freedmen's 
 Bureau, noting property especially adapted to school use in 
 present or future (in his reports on this matter he saw to it 
 that the Wood farm, where the Hampton Institute was 
 afterward situated, always went to Washington with the endorse- 
 ment, "Advisable to hold"), and to report what local sentiment 
 existed for or against the education of the freedmen. With a 
 characteristic tendency to state the best side of a subject, he 
 writes that there is in some counties "a growing sentiment in 
 favor of the freedmen's education," and an increasing degree of 
 safety for Negro school- houses and teachers, especially for those 
 of the colored race who seemed to escape the general prejudice 
 against teachers of freedmen. 
 
ISO Samuel Chapman Atmsttong 
 
 by their former masters, or perhaps a craving for a 
 hitherto contraband knowledge, though without any 
 sufficient understanding of the nature of it. Many 
 sensible people believed that though the Negroes 
 might have made or might be making political 
 mistakes, they yet realized their own ignorance and 
 inexperience and planned for the overcoming of 
 these faults. It was thought that as material aid 
 seemed to be their greatest present necessity, so 
 education defined as the acquiring of information 
 was their chief future need; those who believed in 
 them were ready to advocate university training 
 for them, while the skeptical avowed that any 
 education was too good for a " nigger. " So, in spite 
 of general interest in their mental needs, it came 
 about that their economic and moral faults were in 
 large measure overlooked; and the realization that 
 thrift, energy and high moral standards were of 
 necessity lacking in this lately enslaved race did 
 not force itself upon most of their northern friends. 
 But among those who came closely in contact 
 with the Negroes were a few who grasped the fact 
 that more important to their present or to their 
 future than charitable relief, or even than educa- 
 tion as commonly understood, was training in 
 common morality and habits of industry and fore- 
 sight. As General Armstrong said ; 
 
 "The North generally thinks that the great thing 
 is to free the Negro from his former owners; the real 
 thing is to save him from himself. 'Gumption,' per- 
 
The Ffeedmcn's Bureau, J 866- 1 872 151 
 
 ception, guiding instincts rather than a capacity to 
 leam, are the advantages of our more favored race." 
 
 He knew of the slave both what the slave- 
 holder knew — that to put a veneer of learning on the 
 plantation Negro would be dangerous nonsense — and 
 what the northern friends of the Negro knew — that 
 as a human being he deserved a fair chance in life. 
 He saw that between the university and no school 
 there was a middle course in which lay the hope 
 of the race. 
 
 This clear vision was no doubt due to his early 
 training and observation and to a still persisting 
 sense of aloofness not yet wholly swallowed up in 
 the sense of citizenship in the United States. This 
 feeling of separateness saved him not only from the 
 errors of the partisan, but also from many petty local 
 annoyances to which he might often have been 
 subjected as agent of the Freedmen's Bureau. 
 The Southerners could respect, if they could not 
 love, an official with semi-foreign antecedents, and 
 he was never troubled by the intense and burning 
 local antagonism to his work which made the 
 situation of many of his fellow-workers almost 
 intolerable. 
 
 He believed in the Freedmen's Bureau; he was 
 thoroughly loyal to it and to the scheme of recon- 
 struction of which it was a part, 
 
 "I believe the continuance of the bureau desirable," 
 he writes officially. "It is a moral power that is 
 
152 Samoel Chapman Afmstfong 
 
 greatly felt ; it prevents more than it forcibly suppresses. 
 The freedmen stretch out their arms to the Government 
 not for 'bread and homes' (as has been said), but for 
 help and justice; without the bureau they will receive 
 neither. Every material hope held out by the Govern- 
 ment has failed them; they are not what and where 
 they expected to be; they did not fight for this. The 
 bureau is their last hope; were they anything better 
 than suppliants for what mercy they can get they would 
 demand its continuance. For this they imiversally 
 and earnestly petition." 
 
 And again, relative to the whole subject of recon- 
 struction, he writes in a private letter: 
 
 "I am delighted with the new reconstruction bill. 
 It is based on justice and truth. I am satisfied that 
 Negro suffrage, if allowed, will become a fact without 
 trouble or noise, and it's coming soon." 
 
 These two years of work for the Freedmen's 
 Bureau were difficult and uncertain. In doubt as to 
 its continuance and as yet with no other means of 
 livelihood at hand, Armstrong half expected to be 
 turned adrift as he had been at the close of the 
 war. But his determination, as he wrote at this 
 time, was firm to "stick to the darkies while there 
 is anything to be done for them." 
 
 By 1869 the Freedmen's Bureau began to show 
 signs of dissolution. Its courts were mercilessly 
 criticized and at last pronounced unconstitutional. 
 An outcry from all parts of the South arose against 
 its authority. The North had to confess that the 
 
The Freedmen's B«tea«* J 866- J 872 15,3 
 
 Negro had not made such progress in moral and 
 material conditions as had been expected, and 
 since such improvement was the only excuse for 
 the continuance of the extraordinary powers of 
 the bureau its work came to an end. 
 
 But its educational department, which had 
 justified itself by careful and successful work among 
 the freedmen, was continued until 1872, when it, 
 too, was brought to a close. Armstrong worked 
 with this department till the end, carrying it on 
 side by side with other and new activities. 
 
 The brief time which Armstrong actually passed 
 in the service of the Freedmen 's Bureau is more 
 important to the story of his life by reason of its 
 suggestions of his future work and character than 
 any other equally short space of time. He entered 
 upon it heart-free, care-free, with good spirits oozing 
 from every pore, expressing himself in his private 
 life by joyous hyperbole and unbounded delight in 
 practical jokes, and after passing through a restless 
 transitional period fell in love, found his life-work, 
 and emerged from it a man sobered and settled, 
 full-grown in his mental and moral powers. Of 
 these brief pregnant years he left in his personal 
 letters slight record, though official writings 
 abound, and one must mainly glean from his 
 outer activities what his inner life must have been. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 The Beginnings of Hampton 
 
 General Armstrong had not been at Hampton 
 more than a twelvemonth before there began to 
 grow in his mind thoughts of an educational insti- 
 tution for the Negroes different from any he saw 
 there, and adapted especially to the needs of the 
 ex-slaves. Such thoughts had long been present 
 in his dreams ; he used to relate in after years how^ 
 lying on the deck of the transport-ship that was 
 conveying him and his troops to Texas, he saw, as 
 it were in a dream, the Hampton school, completed 
 and much as it later actually became; twice again 
 had come this vision of future achievement, so 
 that he rather decided upon Hampton as a site for 
 such an institution than conceived now for the first 
 time the idea of it. 
 
 The peninsula of Old Point was indeed a most 
 favorable situation, both historically and geo- 
 graphically. He wrote later: 
 
 "Close at hand the pioneer settlers of America and 
 the first slaves landed on this continent — here Powhatan 
 reigned; here the Indian was first met; here the first 
 Indian child was baptized ; here freedom was first given 
 to the slave by General Butler's famous contraband 
 
 154 
 
SAMUEL CHAPMANT ARMSTRONG AT THE AGE OF 28 
 
The Beginnings of Hampton 155 
 
 order; in sight of this shore the battle of the Monitor 
 saved the Union and revolutionized naval warfare ; here 
 General Grant based the operations of his final cam- 
 paign. The place was easily accessible by railroad 
 routes to the North and to a population of 2,000,000 of 
 Negroes, the center of great prospective development, 
 and withal a place most healthful and beautiful in 
 situation." 
 
 As he meditated upon the development of the 
 plan, the Hilo Manual Labor School for Native 
 Hawaiians,* which he had observed in his boyhood, 
 often occurred to his mind as an example of success- 
 ful industrial education for an imdeveloped race, 
 and he remembered that it turned out men "less 
 brilliant than the advanced schools, but more 
 solid." But he saw that the cases of the Hawaiian 
 and the Negro, though similar, were not parallel, 
 and their needs not identical. There was a small 
 and decadent people : here a large and rapidly grow- 
 ing one, and a people related in a peculiar way to 
 their neighbors, free from the responsibilities of 
 property, yet holding in many places at least 
 potential political power. 
 
 Soon after the war, when the southern States 
 made grants of money sufficient to provide a sort 
 of schooling for blacks and whites separately, 
 
 * The Hilo school was a boarding-school for Hawaiian boys, 
 who paid their expenses by working in carpentry, housework, 
 gardening, etc., in which they received some slight instruction. 
 It was the only school where the Hawaiians were expected to 
 work with hands as well as heads, and was a marked success. 
 The school still exists. 
 
156 Samwel Chapman Atmstrong 
 
 white teachers from the North took up the work 
 of instructing the Negroes; but their efforts were 
 regarded with disfavor by their southern white 
 neighbors, and they were gradually replaced by 
 Negro teachers, who, as has been said, met with less 
 opposition or were even welcomed. 
 
 In Virginia, where the school grants were un- 
 usually prompt and large, there was naturally a 
 great and growing demand for young colored 
 people able to teach their race, but for several 
 years this demand met with very inadequate 
 response. 
 
 General Armstrong saw this need and set about 
 to supply the public schools of Virginia and the 
 South with teachers — with teachers who should be 
 leaders of their people toward better moral and 
 physical as well as mental habits. 
 
 From the first he viewed labor in this institution 
 as a triple force; 
 
 (i) In its moral aspect; strengthening the will and 
 thus inculcating a sense of self-reliance and inde- 
 pendence, relieving labor from the odium which 
 slavery had cast upon it in the minds of the 
 Negroes, keeping strongly sensual temperaments 
 out of mischief, and giving habits of regularity. 
 " It will make them men and women as nothing else 
 will; it is the only way in which to make them 
 good Christians," he said. 
 
 (2) As a means whereby the pupils might earn 
 the education that should fit them to be teachers 
 
The Beginnings of Hampton 157 
 
 and leaders and earn it so far as possible by their 
 own work. 
 
 (3) As a means whereby the student might learn 
 while in the school how to support himself after 
 graduation by the work of his hands as well as by 
 his brains, thus affording an example of industry 
 to his people. 
 
 To quote from a later writing of his own: 
 
 "The thing to be done was clear: to train selected 
 Negro youths who should go out and teach and lead 
 their people, first by example, by getting land and 
 homes; to give them not a dollar that they could earn 
 for themselves; to teach respect for labor, to replace 
 stupid drudgery with skilled hands, and to those ends 
 to build up an industrial system for the sake not only 
 of self-support and intelligent labor, but also for the 
 sake of character." 
 
 The idea of combining mental and manual train- 
 ing is to-day made so familiar by a public school 
 system where they are given more and more in 
 conjunction, by the great endowed and the public 
 technical schools, and by a system of State agri- 
 cultural colleges extending throughout the Union, 
 that the fact of its novelty thirty-two years ago 
 seems strange. But the public mind was not only 
 ignorant of the wise application of the theory, but 
 prejudiced against any trial of it. A certain 
 method of mingling mental and manual work had 
 been, indeed, widely practised, and its results were 
 well known. For some years before Hampton began, 
 
iS8 Samwel Chapman Armstfongf 
 
 many institutions, among them Mt. Holyoke Sem- 
 inary for women, Wellesley College, and Oberlin 
 College for both sexes, had required the students 
 to do a certain amount of labor, supposing that 
 their work would help pay the expenses of the 
 institutions. One by one these institutions gave 
 up the experiment, as the pupils, in many cases 
 young girls unused to manual work, under the 
 strain of combined labor and study so often gave 
 out that public opinion would not allow the contin- 
 uance of the system. Oberlin College (Ohio) was 
 the most prominent example of this, which may 
 be called the "old-fashioned" type of manual- 
 labor schools. Already in 1868 its experiment 
 had f3,iled as a financial venture and had fallen 
 short of the moral results which were hoped for from 
 it. Armstrong knew the work of these schools 
 and the judgment that had been passed on them 
 by public opinion. He saw that the difficulties of 
 combining mental and manual work were both 
 financial and physical; at Oberlin the farmers com- 
 plained that the students' hearts were in their 
 books, while the teachers lamented that the stu- 
 dents were too tired to study; no effective farm- 
 work could be done with such half-hearted labor, 
 while few pupils could with equal zeal study and 
 toil with their hands. He saw that the Negro, 
 inured to toil, tough in physical fiber, and without 
 the highly developed American nervous system, 
 could imdertake a daily routine that would kill a 
 
The Beginningfs of Hampton 159 
 
 New England girl ; he thought, too, that by a certain 
 skilful arrangement of work and study he could 
 avoid the failure of either farm or book work. As 
 the bulk of the Negroes were unfit for any form of 
 industrial work other than farming, they must be 
 placed in a school on a farm where they could plow 
 and plant as they were used to doing. So he planned 
 and thought as he worked in his office or rode on 
 horseback over the sandy roads of his little king- 
 dom during the first year of his stay at Hampton. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1867 he wrote to 
 the American Missionary Association, as the greatest 
 financial power interested in Negro education, 
 suggesting that this was the spot for a "permanent 
 and great educational work," and recommending 
 that a valuable estate — "Little Scotland" — com- 
 prising 159 acres, fronting on Hampton River and 
 now come on the market, be purchased. The asso- 
 ciation promptly and cheerfully acceded to his 
 request, and it was decided that a school should be 
 placed there imder the auspices of the American 
 Missionary Association, 
 
 "Not expecting to have charge, but only to help, I 
 was surprised one day," wrote Armstrong, "to receive 
 a letter from Secretary E. P. Smith, of the American 
 Missionary Association, stating that the man selected 
 for the place had declined and asking if I would take it. 
 I replied, 'Yes.' Till then my future had been blind; 
 it had only been clear that there was a work to be done 
 for the ex-slave and where and how to do it." 
 
i6o Samwel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 Used to planning far in advance of the present, 
 his brain was already actively devising ways in 
 which money to pay for buildings and improve- 
 ments could be procured. He felt sure that the 
 people of the North would support a wise work 
 for the freedmen; that the American Missionary 
 Association would help him; and that the Freed- 
 men's Bureau, through General Howard, would 
 contribute something from its btiilding fimd. He 
 thought, too, that the farm, by raising vegetables 
 for the northern market, would be a source of 
 profit and furnish, besides, almost all the supplies 
 that would be necessary for the school. 
 
 These problems of support were still for the 
 future; for the present the full purchase money for 
 the Wood farm — "Little Scotland" — was not yet 
 forthcoming. The American Missionary Associa- 
 tion had indeed authorized its purchase, but were 
 not prepared to pay the whole sum, $19,000, and 
 relied on the young man at whose word the purchase 
 was made to help them in raising it. While the 
 matter was thus hanging in the air, a gentleman 
 from Pittsburg, Honorable Josiah King, execu- 
 tor of the Avery estate, which included a legacy of 
 $250,000 for Negro education, at the suggestion 
 of the association paid a visit to Hampton. He 
 was taken to a high building in the vicinity, was 
 struck with the adaptability of the neighborhood 
 to institutional purposes, and shortly paid, through 
 the American Missionary Association, the $10,000 
 
The Beginnings of Hampton i6i 
 
 which was still needed. To this visit of Mr. King 
 Armstrong referred in later years as the first step 
 toward the foundation of the Hampton Institute. 
 
 The estate just purchased included two good 
 brick buildings on the water-front, the mansion 
 house, where Armstrong had lived since his coming 
 to Hampton, and the flour mill of the plantation, 
 occupied since the war by Negro families. There 
 was upon the estate, back from the water's edge, a 
 great triangular hospital building, formerly a United 
 States hospital, including eight or ten acres of 
 ground within its walls. To the right of the mansion 
 house stretched a salt marsh, ending in a small 
 tidal river and bounded by a sandy knoll on the 
 water-front. Back from the water the bulk of the 
 estate stretched in sandy level, its monotony 
 varied by a few lanes of Negro quarters, dotted 
 with hospital barracks, new and old (one dating 
 even from the Revolutionary War), and botinded 
 on the right by a national cemetery where 6,000 
 troops were buried. The site had many advan- 
 tages: the two solid buildings offered housing for 
 classes and teachers, the barracks afforded material 
 that could be used again in construction, and the 
 Hampton River, easily navigable to this poiat, 
 flowed past the grounds and gave good drainage. 
 
 After the purchase of a farm to provide supplies 
 and give opportimity for student labor, the next 
 step was to provide housing for the future pupils, 
 and on October i, 1867, ground was broken for 
 
1 62 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 the first temporary buildings of the Hampton 
 Institute. The American Missionary Association 
 sent two carpenters to put up some cheap wooden 
 structures, the material to be taken from the old 
 hospital barracks. 
 
 Mr. Albert Howe, who was in charge of the con- 
 struction, writes: 
 
 "After some difficulties we put two wards together, 
 making a long one-story building, 250 feet long, with 
 belfry in the middle; next to it a small kitchen, where 
 'Uncle Tom' cooked for the school. . . . Once 
 General Armstrong, pointing to a knoll (or bluff) 
 where Academic Hall now stands, said: 'That's just 
 the place for an academic building; don't take too much 
 pains with these barracks ; three years will demonstrate 
 whether we can make teachers out of these colored 
 people; then we shall make some substantial, lasting 
 buildings. That will be the spot for the Academic 
 Hall, and just here a building for girls and a general 
 dining-room — we'll call it Virginia Hall.' He gave 
 them the very names they bear now. Then he pointed 
 out sites for boys' cottages — all just as you see it now. 
 I sat on a log and looked at him — I thought he was a 
 visionary — it all came to pass." 
 
 As early as 1867 Armstrong foresaw the coming 
 need of friends in the North and, granted a brief 
 leave of absence, took several trips thither, quietly 
 getting himself introduced to a few influential people 
 here and there. His work for the Negroes on the 
 peninsula was not unknown, and his project of 
 starting a normal school to train colored teachers 
 
The Begmning:s of Hampton 163 
 
 aroused interest wherever it was heard of. In a 
 letter to his mother he thus describes one of these 
 early trips: 
 
 "I can't complain of not being appreciated in this 
 country. I wish you could read the warm, friendly 
 words before me of Miss Anna Lowell, sister of the noble 
 General Charles Lowell, who fell in the Shenandoah. 
 We have been many months working together and a 
 true friendship has sprung up — or see the splendid 
 Woolsey family of New York, who have been so kind 
 to me. They are full of interest in my work, are helping 
 me much, and they have a fine army record. Then, if 
 I am not bragging too much, the Emersons of Concord 
 and Higginsons of Cambridge seem to remember me 
 kindly. . . . But enough to show you that I am 
 well guarded, heartily encouraged, most kindly treated, 
 extravagantly complimented, and am now prospering 
 finely with my normal school. 
 
 "This being in the world is ever3rthing; it gives a 
 man manner, and as Emerson says most truly, ' Manner 
 is power.' My experience shows that in the quickness 
 of modem life is the necessity of instant action in many 
 cases. 'The first step counts,' and the success of the 
 first step depends on how it is done; that is often well 
 or ill, according to manner. The first thing is to be 
 right and true. The second thing is to be transparent, 
 so that the right and true in one shall shine out; but 
 that is manner, and can only be reached by the highest 
 culture." 
 
 A flattering offer was made to him in the fall of 
 1867, which he describes in the same letter: 
 
 "But I must tell you about my visit to Washington. 
 
164 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 Some days ago I received a telegram from General 
 Howard to report in person to him at once. Ignorant 
 of his intention, I proceeded without delay to his head- 
 quarters. It seems he wished me to take charge of the 
 Howard University at Washington — his pet enterprise. 
 There are sixty acres of land, splendidly located, with 
 a commanding view, and two large btiildings of artificial 
 stone going up, one for the students' rooms and one 
 for recitation, lecture, library, etc. They will look 
 splendidly. Close by is General Howard's new home. 
 The locality will be the most stylish in the city. The 
 university is intended to be central for (especially, 
 though not solely) the colored youth of the country; 
 to be, if Howard has his way, the largest educational 
 enterprise of its kind {i.e., for freedmen) in the land. 
 At present and for a few years the labor will be all 
 preparatory, as the freed children are not at all advanced. 
 I was desired and very urgently and persistently asked 
 to take hold of this institution, become its head, and 
 make out of it what is possible. I met the trustees 
 twice, looked over the whole ground carefully, and 
 refused for two reasons. First, I was in honor bound 
 to the American Missionary Association that had so 
 warmly supported me here and carried out all my 
 plans. Secondly, I consider that my own enterprise 
 here has better possibilities (is more central with refer- 
 ence to freedmen and has important advantages). 
 . . . Howard is one of the noblest, bravest and 
 kindest of men. He has used me remarkably well." 
 
 The letter continues: 
 
 "After refusing General Howard's offer, I took care to 
 urge my own scheme; returning through Richmond, had 
 an interview with General Brown, who has given up his 
 
The Begfinnlngfs of Hampton 165 
 
 York River affair, has come over to my side and is 
 going to help my institution. We are ahead and alone. 
 The ground is new. The enterprise is as full of bad 
 possibilities as of good ones; most embarrassing condi- 
 tions will occur from time to time; all is experiment, but 
 all is hopeful. The success of this will be the guarantee 
 of a dozen more like it in the South. I have to face 
 the fact that a manual-labor school never yet succeeded 
 in the North, but the powers of prayer and faith are 
 strong — in these we will conquer. 
 
 "I am in the midst of the battle now. Worked very 
 hard. Just about to open. Applicants are coming 
 forward encouragingly. Truly the pillar of cloud is 
 before us. Every serious difhculty seems to be removed. 
 What can resist the pressure of steady, energetic 
 pressure, the force of a single right idea pushed month 
 after month in its natural development ? If I succeed 
 it will be because of carefully selecting a thing to do 
 and the doing of it. Few men comprehend the deep 
 philosophy of one-man power. As a soldier I would 
 always fight on the principle of all great warriors, 
 'concentration and celerity.' As an educator, as any- 
 thing, I would apply that same always sound principle, 
 adding to it with reference to enemies or any other 
 obstacle, 'Divide and be conquered.'" 
 
 The new school was to open with the spring of 
 1868, and Armstrong looked forward cheerfully to its 
 financial prospects. General Howard was executing 
 a skilful flank movement in his dealings with Con- 
 gress for the purpose of adding to the construction 
 fund of the Freedmen's Bureau, which he describes 
 as follows: 
 
1 66 Samoel Chapman Afmstrongf 
 
 "In Washington there was a great population of 
 colored refugees — contrabands, as they were called. 
 They had flocked there as to the source of light and 
 love. They were in a deplorable condition, with almost 
 nothing to eat or wear. Congress gave them soup, now 
 and then clothing. It was a great question what to do 
 with them or for them. I thought it would be best 
 to transport every able-bodied man and woman to some 
 place where they could get labor. I sent off 10,000 
 from Washington alone. 
 
 ** Now, though the idea of education or any legislation 
 or work to elevate them did not commend itself to 
 Congress or find any favor, the idea of transporting 
 was immensely popular at once. * Transportation ! 
 Transportation! That's the idea; transport them, of 
 course, anywhere. If to Africa, so much the better.' 
 So then I got large appropriations for that purpose 
 repeatedly, as often as I asked for them, without any 
 trouble, much more than I asked. But a great many 
 were glad to go and pay their own way in part. So I 
 reduced the population sufficiently without the least 
 trouble, and when it was done there remained a very 
 large surplus from the appropriations. I simply asked 
 Congress that I might transfer what funds were left to 
 educational purposes, and the request was granted 
 without much thought of what they were doing. So 
 Hampton got its plum and all the other institutions 
 were started, all as the restdt of that quiet flanking 
 operation." * 
 
 Out of this fund Armstrong expected a grant 
 of $20,000. 
 
 As the year 1868 opened he hastened his efforts 
 
 *In an address delivered at Hampton Institute in 1889. 
 
The Beginningfs of Hampton 167 
 
 to be ready for pupils in April. The one-story bar- 
 rack, built of old lumber, was completed, the flour 
 mill repaired, and crops planted to mature in June 
 in time for shipment to the northern market. 
 
 On April i, 1868, school was opened with an 
 attendance of fifteen pupils and a teacher and a 
 matron, both employed by the American Mission- 
 ary Association. A few days after the opening 
 of school, April 5th, he wrote to his mother: 
 
 "Things here look well. My machine has just 
 commenced to run. The anxiety and patient effort it 
 has cost are great, but I am now satisfied with it all. 
 . . . The buildings I have erected and repaired are 
 insured for $15,000, less than their real value." 
 
 By April 26th there were thirty pupils in the 
 school, doing manual work in the morning and 
 studying in the afternoons and evenings. The boys 
 worked on the farm, the girls at housework; three 
 girls supported themselves by working at a trade 
 learned before coming. The pupils worked in 
 squads, one squad working two days in the week 
 and studying the other four; they were paid for 
 their work, not in cash, but in credit on the books of 
 the school. Armstrong hoped by this plan to obtain 
 sets of men who should be steadily employed at 
 labor and study for regular alternate periods, so 
 that study should not suffer from daily interrup- 
 tion as it did at Oberlin, where part of every day 
 was spent on the farm, and farm work should not 
 
1 68 Samuel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 suffer from having laborers whose minds were bent 
 on their books. Students were paid a wage, "up 
 to the point of encouragement," as he said, of 8 cents 
 per hour; whereas at Oberlin only 4 to 7 cents for 
 men and 3 to 4 cents for women was paid. Board 
 was $10 a month, of which half, or in case 
 of extreme want the whole, could be worked out. 
 Those who worked out the entire sum were allowed 
 to attend school at night, thus fitting themselves 
 mentally at the same time as financially to enter the 
 day school later. If a student wished to earn his 
 way by working at some industry other than 
 what was provided by the school, he was allowed 
 to do so. No student was expected to pay for his 
 tuition, a burden which would have been too great 
 for any Negro to carry in those early times. The 
 expense of tuition, estimated at $70 a year, was 
 borne by the management. 
 
 With all the care and time incidental to getting 
 this organization in running order, Armstrong was 
 still called on to perform his duties as Freedmen's 
 Bureau agent, for the summer of 1868 was not yet 
 over. In fact, had it not been for the salary 
 received from the Bureau until 1872 he could 
 not have carried on the work of starting Hampton 
 at all through these unsettled years, for he did not 
 take even the salary allowed him out of the school 
 funds, saying: 
 
 "Some of my friends don't like this, but they little 
 know the way of successful leadership. The rebel offi- 
 
The Beginnings of Hampton 169 
 
 cers fought without pay, and why should not I in . ten 
 times better cause? ... I have so far had- .very- 
 thing needed for personal comfort, yes, a jolly goc 1 time 
 on the whole, with an occasional grind and sor.ietimes 
 an impecunious sensation." 
 
 In June, 18^8, he wrote: 
 
 "However it [the bureau] goes, I am too firmly 
 anchored here to be moved or greatly disappointed by 
 its failure. The chances are that my life-work is here, 
 and I shall not regret it." 
 
 He continues: 
 
 " It is now spring harvest, and we shall gather $2,000 
 worth of vegetables which the students have raised. 
 They will be sold in New York and Baltimore. Just 
 sold a pea crop for $900 — half of it clear profit." 
 
 The establishment of a profitable vegetable farm 
 seems to have been regarded by Armstrong in a 
 double light. 
 
 "It is my intention," he wrote, "to wait till another 
 year's results are in and when, if successful, I shall have 
 mastered a highly profitable business, will know all 
 about it, and of course be able to do a second time what 
 I have done once. In that case I shall make an effort 
 to buy and establish a 'truck' farm of my own, thus 
 having something to fall back upon and also being 
 known as a landowner, which will make my position 
 socially far more pleasant and dignified and my political 
 chances greatly improved. Nothing is so bad for one 
 in political life as to be dependent entirely upon his 
 
1 7° Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 officu His opponents know it is his weak point and 
 consec iiently fling his poverty in the faces of his friends, 
 and hi; friends are apt to exact all sorts of things from 
 him because he is dependent upon their favor. Here 
 in the J: outh, where nearly all northern men are poor, 
 it is a pt werful thing, a great foothold, to be supposed 
 even to b worth something." 
 
 During the summer of 1868 he made another 
 northern trip by special order of General Howard, 
 in order to visit the agricultural and normal schools 
 of the North. 3ince his last trip his position had 
 become more assured, and he was recognized as an 
 official representative of the educational work 
 done by the Freedmen's Bureau and by the Ameri- 
 can Missionary Association. 
 
 He felt while on this trip how dear to him the 
 work at Hampton was becoming, full of perplexity 
 though it often was. He writes from Boston : 
 
 "I have been over the 'Athens ' but wouldn't live 
 here for anything. I am glad I'm on the outposts doing 
 frontier duty and pioneer work, for the South is a 
 heathen land and Hampton is on the borders thereof. 
 I see my whole nature calls me to the work that is done 
 there — to lay foundations strong and not do frescoes 
 and fancy work." 
 
 The fall term opened prosperously. A few days 
 after its beginning he wrote: 
 
 "This is no easy machine to run wisely, rightly. 
 The darkies are so full of human nature and have to 
 
The Beginnings of Hampton 171 
 
 be most carefully watched over. They are apt to be 
 possessed with strange notions. To simply control 
 them is one thing, but to educate, to draw them out, to 
 develop the germ of good possibilities into firm fruition, 
 requires the utmost care. Eternal vigilance will be the 
 price of success. A very good and noble lady, Mrs. 
 Griggs, of New York, has just given $1,000 to the 
 Institute. Work is going ahead. I have just secured 
 for our farm work an old hospital worth several hundred 
 dollars. ... I am driving things ahead as fast as 
 possible and hope with a well-appointed farm next 
 year to make good profits. I have just been refitting 
 our home.* This house is a brick thing, rather ungainly 
 from the exterior, but within it is quite pleasant and 
 comfortable since the repairs. Outside there is a wide 
 piazza, about fourteen feet wide and forty feet long, 
 from which there is a pleasant view and where it is 
 pleasant to promenade." 
 
 The late fall and early winter were spent in the 
 search for a farmer who should be scientific enough 
 to command respect and practical enough to make 
 the farm profitable. The farm was at that time 
 considered the most completely appointed in the 
 State, and Armstrong was ambitious to make it the 
 best and most scientifically managed in the South. 
 He looked as far north as New Jersey for his man, 
 writing : 
 
 "This is an anxious sort of a trip for me, because so 
 much — our whole financial success — depends on my 
 choice of the right man. I only now begin to compre- 
 
 *Ref erring to the old mansion house, where he lived and 
 which he expected to make his permanent home. 
 
172 Samttel Chapman Atmsttong 
 
 hend the difficulty of getting the right men for this 
 work. I see why most institutions and enterprises 
 fail. There are lots of men, but few who are good for 
 anything. Many men can talk, can shine — few can do 
 things." 
 
 He succeeded in finding the right man, who abso- 
 lutely refused his offer, but eventually came to 
 Hampton — a change of heart not at all uncommon 
 under Armstrong's magnetic determination to win 
 his chosen assistants. 
 
 The year 1869 proved to be a most eventful 
 one. Armstrong had determined on the erection 
 of an expensive and elaborate brick building for 
 the class work at Hampton, to be called Academic 
 Hall. He received from General Howard, as he 
 had hoped, the sum of $20,000 toward it, and in 
 order that the structure might be a tasteful one 
 secured the services of Richard M. Hunt as archi- 
 tect. The bricks were to be made on the grounds, 
 an industry which was soon in full operation, the 
 students making several thousand bricks a day. 
 He told the American Missionary Association that 
 he would not depend on them for a cent of the 
 money for its erection, and looked forward to a 
 struggle to raise the $13,000 which, with the $20,000 
 already secured, would, he thought, cover the cost. 
 
 September 20th he wrote: 
 
 "This has been an interesting day. The mason from 
 New York has come and there is the bustle of prepara- 
 
'ki^^im *j- 
 
The Beginnings of Hampton 173 
 
 tion. To-morrow the first bricks are to be laid. Between 
 them and the last — between the first stroke of the 
 mason's trowel and the last — what a world of anxiety 
 and labor there will be ! The erecting of this building 
 is the most responsible and conspicuous and fateful 
 single executive act of my life. The failure of it would 
 be a crushing blow to body and mind. I could not 
 bear failure. The success of it will be only an inspiration 
 to other fields of effort, in what directions I cannot tell, 
 but they will be opened when it is time to enter them. 
 To-day two more masons went to work and there are 
 now twelve of them laying bricks. We put up about 
 20,000 bricks a day. Truly they say the building 
 ground is a busy place. I only pay $3 a day, and, 
 what is unknown in this country, I pay white and black 
 just the same when the work is the same. It pleases 
 the darkies, but the white masons don't like it much. 
 They have an idea that the institute is rich and think 
 it hard if we don't give them more than anybody else. 
 I have to be supremely indifferent and tell them to go 
 wherever I like, though I should hate to have them 
 leave. Half colored and half white is the character 
 of my gang; they get along in millennial peace. Backy* 
 and I rather enjoy the plotting of these fellows; they 
 can't get very far ahead of us. 
 
 "Two hundred and fifty barrels of cement arrived 
 from New York this morning and had to be unloaded 
 at our wharf. What a singular providence it is that 
 we have here ever5;i;hing we need ! This wharf, that 
 is of such service and economy to us, was built 
 just at the close of the war for the purpose of 
 landing wounded soldiers more conveniently and 
 comfortably, but was never quite completed. It is 
 just what we want." 
 
 ♦His brother Baxter. 
 
174 Samtjel Chapman Atmstrong 
 
 An incident in connection with the erection of 
 Academic Hall is recorded by Doctor Strieby, the 
 senior secretary of the American Missionary Asso- 
 ciation. He and several other men of influence 
 and character, among them Doctor Mark Hopkins, 
 the venerable president of Williams College, and 
 General Garfield, were invited to visit Hampton in 
 July, 1869, to consult with General Armstrong 
 about his plans and about the situation of the 
 new building. Most of them thought that the pur- 
 chase of the Chesapeake Female Seminary (now the 
 main building of the Veterans' Home at Hampton), 
 would be wiser than the erection of a new building, 
 with all the risks involved. Armstrong, however, 
 opposed this plan strongly, fearing the traces of 
 disease that might linger in the building as a heritage 
 from its use as a hospital in war time, and perceiv- 
 ing that the level flats stretching along its water- 
 front would make drainage difficult and expensive. 
 
 "We all met on the veranda of the General's house," 
 says Doctor Strieby. "We looked the matter over. 
 I said, 'That is the thing to do — to buy the seminary 
 building.' General Armstrong was inflexibly opposed 
 to it (for one reason that it would prevent the erection of 
 a more suitable and lasting building) . At last President 
 Mark Hopkins took me to one side and said, 'We had 
 better let this young man have his way.' And we did." 
 
 So the building was placed where Armstrong 
 had determined, some two years before, that it 
 
The Beginnings of Hampton 175 
 
 should be placed, and by the commencement of 
 the fall term of 1870 was in order for use. 
 
 The letters to his mother grew briefer and less 
 frequent from this time, the beginning of his active 
 work at Hampton ; but letters to a new correspond- 
 ent give for a time in equal detail his thoughts 
 and hopes for his work. The recipient of these 
 confidences was Miss Emma Dean Walker, of Stock- 
 bridge, Massachusetts, to whom he was married in 
 October, 1869. Hereafter for their married life of nine 
 years the deepest expressions of thought and feeling 
 are to be found in his letters to her. 
 
 Emm^a Walker was a young girl of rare charm 
 of person and character, and brought to her new 
 home at Hampton a spirit of devotion to her 
 husband's ideals which was of inestimable delight 
 to him. A frail physique prevented active service 
 on her part, and they were constantly separated, 
 both by the needs of the Hampton school for 
 money and by her own wanderings in search 
 of health. But in spite of drawbacks the 
 married life of these two, united by a singu- 
 larly close devotion to each other and to high 
 ideals of unselfish living, was full of sympathy 
 and joy. 
 
 Having now a home and family, Armstrong's 
 thoughts turned longingly sometimes toward the 
 possibility of securing a more fixed income and 
 position. He considered running for Congress, but 
 soon gave up definitely and permanently ideas of 
 
176 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 a political advancement, writing to his mother as 
 follows ; 
 
 "I have concluded to give up all Congressional plans 
 and to stick to my work here. This is not because my 
 political chances are not good. They are, I suppose, 
 excellent; but I like less. and less this breaking off one 
 thing and going into another, and besides the tendencies 
 and dangers of politics I greatly fear. I am more and 
 more disgusted with all kinds of public life. There's 
 more worry and bother about it than the positions are 
 worth. It has ceased to attract." 
 
 He applied during the fall for the position of 
 State assessor of taxes, to which a good salary was 
 attached, but failed to get it. The conclusion must 
 have forced itself upon him that the work he had 
 chosen was his for better or worse, and was, more- 
 over, a jealous mistress, to be cherished to the 
 exclusion of all other interests. 
 
 The final step in the beginnings of Hampton, 
 and one which marked the opening of a new period 
 in its development, was an act passed by the General 
 Assembly of Virginia June 4, 1870, incorporating 
 the "Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, 
 for the instruction of youth in the various common 
 schools, academic and industrial branches, the 
 best methods of teaching same and best mode of 
 practical industry in its application to agricul- 
 ture and the mechanic arts." 
 
 The breadth of scope shown by this charter, 
 including every race, industry and method, indi- 
 
The Beginnings of Hampton 177 
 
 cates clearly that the founder realized the possibil- 
 ities of his school and wished to hamper its future 
 by no limitations. But the school was not incor- 
 porated by the Virginia Legislature without con- 
 siderable discussion, and many were the busy days 
 passed by Armstrong that spring of 1870 in the hot 
 Richmond lobbies, using his persuasive powers on 
 the conservative ex-Confederates. It is greatly to 
 the credit of his eloquence, and a tribute also to 
 their real liberality, that they should have passed 
 such an act at a time when hot passions still seethed 
 about every southern legislative hall. 
 
 April 30, 1870, he wrote to his friend and adviser, 
 General J. P. B. Marshall, who soon became treas- 
 urer of the Hampton school: 
 
 "Our act has not yet passed the House. There has 
 been trouble in the matter of making 'no distinction of 
 color.' The conservatives are opposed to such a 
 liberal basis. They will consent to incorporate 'with- 
 out distinction of color' only on the ground that a 
 large portion of the money already granted to this in- 
 titute has been given on express condition that all 
 should be admitted without distinction of color. I 
 have been compelled to obtain papers to prove this fact 
 — have just done so, and probably we'll be all right 
 shortly." 
 
 It was an early dream of his, never realized 
 except in the case of one struggling family of poor 
 whites to whom he gave shelter and a job, that he 
 could directly help the whites of the South by giving 
 
178 Samuel Chapman Armstrongf 
 
 them an industrial education at Hampton. He 
 foresaw the coming lack among them of skilled 
 labor, saying mournfully, ' ' The whites have no 
 apprentices ! ' ' and sincerely wished to aid them 
 in their economic distress. 
 
PART II 
 
 ACCOMPLISHMENT 
 
' •C-^^^'TW" 
 
 GENERAL ARMSTRONG— 1880 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 At Hampton, i 8 70-1 890 
 
 The story of the ensuing twenty years, 1870-1890, 
 is a story of struggle for the existence and growth 
 of the Hampton school. Of this period there is 
 little to be learned from Armstrong's personal 
 letters; his extended activity left him no time for 
 the leisurely letter writing of earlier years. In 
 formal reports and public speeches, and in a few 
 letters that touch slightly on the current events of 
 his life, are to be found indications of his point of 
 view on various matters ; but of the story of his life 
 as told in his own words there is no record. One 
 must look rather at the record of the development 
 of Hampton school — study the spirit that formed 
 it or trace in the North the creation of a public 
 sentiment in favor of Negro industrial education, 
 and try to re-create from the memories of friends 
 the personality that, more than all his eloquence, 
 won him a hearing in the busy northern world. 
 
 The spirit of school life at Hampton is expressed 
 in a few words which he spoke in 1891 at an anni- 
 versary of his old school in the Hawaiian Islands : 
 
 "It remains to make the best of things. Those who 
 181 
 
i82 Samwel Chapman Afmstrong 
 
 are hopeless disarm themselves, and may as well go to 
 the rear; men and women of faith, optimists, to the 
 front. This is the Christian era. '/« hoc signo vinces' 
 is the motto of the faithftd; they are not afraid. But 
 mere optimism is stupid; sanctified common sense is 
 the force that counts. Work for God and man is full 
 of detail. It needs organization, requires subordination, 
 sometimes painfvd holding of the tongue; gabble and 
 gossip, even that of the pious, is one of the most fatal 
 devices of the evil one; the friction and fuss in God's 
 army does much to defeat it. Many people are good, 
 but good for nothing. Working together is as im- 
 portant as working at all." 
 
 The fact that General Armstrong incorporated 
 his first annual report to the trustees in a report of 
 twenty years later, with the comment that he would 
 hardly change a word of it for present or future 
 use, is significant. Many men start with a concep- 
 tion of their work which is modified by circum- 
 stances and experience; but Armstrong adhered 
 to the same plan for the entire length of his active 
 life, and his reports and letters might, but for the 
 record of events of the year — this building com- 
 pleted, that needed — be interchanged, putting the 
 first last and the last first. So, too, his views on 
 Negro affairs, once stated, remain unchanged, for 
 it could be said of the Negro throughout this period 
 that * ' in spite of material and intellectual advances, 
 his deficiencies of character are worse for him and 
 for the world than his fnere ignorance." * 
 
 * First annual report to trustees, 1870. 
 
At Hampton. J870-J890 183 
 
 Most of the students at Hampton for this term of 
 years came from working people who were more 
 ambitious for their children than for themselves. 
 Although many of these young men and women 
 were bom after slavery was past, their traditions 
 were of slavery; and while they were well meaning 
 and prepared to work if they had to, and while 
 they practised the forms of Christianity, they 
 possessed but little comprehension of the real 
 teachings of Christ, and were ignorant alike of the 
 care of body and mind. Merry of temperament, 
 care did not long trouble their breasts; seeking the 
 light with earnestness, they had to contend against 
 the bad influences of inheritance and lack of training. 
 No one believed in them, and they did not believe 
 in themselves; they needed an accession of self- 
 respect, and to stimulate this quality General 
 Armstrong's first efforts were directed. 
 
 Partly for this purpose and partly in order to 
 provide for permanence and future growth, the 
 first buildings at Hampton were costly and imposing 
 brick structures. The first building, Academic Hall, 
 stood alone on a sandy knoll by the water, with 
 boys' dormitories in the top and rooms for recitations 
 occupying the body of the building. This building, 
 which Armstrong spoke of as "my monument as 
 much as anybody's," rose above the salt marshes 
 and fiats of that desolate region like a monu- 
 ment indeed. 
 
 It was soon followed by a second and larger 
 
z84 Samuel Chapman Armstrong' 
 
 building, made necessary by the rapid increase in 
 the number of pupils and the rapid expansion of 
 the industrial idea. 
 
 This second building, costing $76,000, was begun 
 when but $2 ,000 was on hand ; but General Armstrong 
 was confident that the people would sustain a wise 
 work for the freedmen if they could feel that real 
 enterprise and devotion were behind the plea which 
 he made to them; he had a hole dug, piled the 
 bricks and lumber about it, built the foundation, 
 had the corner-stone ready to be laid, and invited 
 a large party from New York and Boston to come 
 down and visit the "mute appeal." * As a result of 
 his efforts, money came with which to begin the 
 erection of the building, and though the panic of 
 1873 intervened between the beginning and the 
 completion of the building, he was able, through the 
 efforts of the "Hampton Singers," who "sung up" 
 its brick walls with true enthusiasm for the cause, 
 to complete it without running into debt. 
 
 Virginia Hall was a dignified building, of a capac- 
 ity far beyond the actual needs of the Hampton 
 school as it was at that time. Some people doubted 
 the wisdom of erecting such an expensive and com- 
 paratively elaborate structure for the instruction of 
 the proverbially careless, unappreciative Negroes, who 
 were supposed to be trained merely as teachers for 
 primary schools; the expenditure of $76,000 for such 
 
 *As he afterward laughingly called a hole dug for the pur- 
 pose of dumbly begging aid. 
 
At Hampton, J870-J890 185 
 
 a purpose seemed a disproportionate outlay. Arm- 
 strong defended his course by showing how economic- 
 ally in such a building the various functions assigned 
 to it could be carried on. "Serving the cause by 
 its well-arranged and commodious interior, con- 
 taining no lot of waste room," he said. Scientific 
 cooking and heating were valuable object lessons for 
 boys and girls just out of a log cabin. He pointed 
 out that a less tasteful and imposing structure 
 would have failed to awaken among the graduates 
 so much pride in their Alma Mater, and that the 
 reputation and influence of the school, both among 
 its white and its black neighbors, would be greatly 
 increased by the erection of a building of which 
 every one could be proud. When completed, 
 the lofty towers of Virginia Hall, showing far 
 above any building in the vicinity, seen for miles 
 over the low-lying country by the dwellers in 
 hundreds of squalid and hopeless Negro homes and 
 by hundreds of oystermen on the waters of Chesa- 
 peake Bay, stood for far more than the fact that a 
 normal school for Negro youths was situated there ; 
 it stood for the faith in their race that was held by 
 one man who dared to risk financial reputation as 
 well as social position in their behalf. 
 
 Although no expense was spared to make the 
 buildings permanent and commanding, the furnish- 
 ings of the room within were simple to plainness, 
 "Costly buildings stimulate self-respect; but beds, 
 furniture and clothing are good but simple, no 
 
1 86 Samuel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 better than what they can, by their own industry, get 
 at home." To this rule Armstrong ahvays adhered, 
 providing male students with home-made straw 
 mattresses, and all with such simple furnishing that 
 any of it could have been made at his own home by 
 either boy or girl. The same idea was carried out 
 in regard to food; accustomed at home to "hog and 
 hominy," this or its equivalent was their fare at 
 school, though he took care that it should be 
 properly cooked and served. 
 
 After the erection of Virginia Hall other buildings 
 followed in rapid succession, so that during this 
 period the material growth of the school was its 
 most marked characteristic. But in Armstrong's 
 thought the heart of all his work was the arrange- 
 ment of an effective, practical routine of hand and 
 head work, the preservation of such an atmosphere 
 of energy and devotion that no student could fail 
 to be impressed by it. 
 
 The routine planned in 1870 and continued for 
 twenty years practically unchanged was simple. 
 Beginning an hour before daybreak in winter, a 
 twelve-hour day of work, study and military drill, 
 with but a few minutes for daily recreation, left 
 little time for self-indulgence and indolence. ' ' There 
 is little mischief done where there is no time for it; 
 activity is a purifier," said General Armstrong. 
 Coeducation, too, a part of the Hampton scheme, 
 which General Armstrong considered second only 
 to manual labor as an educational force for the 
 
At Hampton. J 870- J 890 187 
 
 Negro, was only made possible by this very arduous 
 routine. "Its success," he writes, "is assured by 
 incessant varied activity of mind and body, with 
 proper relaxation and amusement in an atmosphere 
 of Christian influence and sympathy." 
 
 It was a test of physique and endurance in which 
 few white men and women could have come out 
 victorious. And herein lay Armstrong's audacity 
 and the secret of his success, that he had dared to 
 apply it to the indolent Negro ; seeing in his inherited 
 reserve of physical endurance and patience to plod 
 on toward a far-away goal, in his docile disposition 
 which enabled him to accept a hard-and-fast routine 
 without revolt, qualities which fitted him for constant 
 application and continuous effort at high tension. 
 
 General Armstrong met his pupils regularly and 
 often, both in public and private. If any had a 
 "grievance," as he himself would say, or was dis- 
 satisfied with work or surroundings, he had but to 
 ask in order to see "the General," as Armstrong 
 was commonly called by his pupils. He was 
 accessible to all, sitting in the little box of a room 
 that served him for m.any years as an office, where 
 he received complaints and requests and discharged 
 them with quick comprehension of the point and 
 a ready, keen answer that closed the discussion. 
 Many of his pupils will remember him thus seated, 
 his pen in his hand, his piercing eyes looking out 
 over glasses, a straight figure instinct with life. 
 
 He knew how to be severe, having no patience 
 
1 88 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 with lying or laziness. "There is no place for a 
 lazy man in this world or the next," he said. But 
 a kindly humor lurked in his eyes, and he never 
 turned a culprit away without the sense that he 
 was understood and had been fairly treated. Words 
 that he sometimes used, whether quoted or original, 
 described his attitude toward his pupils: " Human, 
 therefore imperfect; human, therefore capable of 
 improvement." 
 
 For Negroes and Indians with their shadowed past 
 he had a pity and long suffering that enabled him 
 to bear their failings with philosophy and kept him 
 from impatience under disappointment. Once, 
 when a promising pupil unexpectedly went to the 
 bad, he said : "If we were not working for two 
 hundred years hence, this might be discouraging." 
 Through all discipline ran his firm military methods ; 
 he was severe toward an offense, but when the 
 punishment was over he bore no ill will toward the 
 offender — a method well adapted to increase in the 
 suspicious natures of the Negro and Indian that 
 confidence in him which they already felt. 
 
 He met some of his pupils weekly in the class- 
 room, instructing them in his favorite study of 
 moral philosophy, as it was then called, using for a 
 text-book Doctor Hopkins's "Outline Study of 
 Man." It was a great pleasure and relaxation 
 to him in the midst of his prosaic daily routine to 
 turn to these larger aspects of man, his possibilities 
 and his destiny, which were associated with the 
 
At Hampton. J 870-1890 189 
 
 leader of his youth and with the quiet seclusion of 
 his college days. He used Doctor Hopkins's methods 
 in conducting a class, stimulating by quick questions 
 and witty rejoinder the interest and mental activity 
 of his scholars. Like Doctor Hopkins, he believed 
 that the class-room should be a jolly place, and used, 
 to say that no recitation was complete without at 
 least one good laugh. "Laughter makes sport of 
 work," he said. While his military manner and 
 stem eye made him feared by many in the class- 
 room, it soon became evident to the most timid, 
 from his patience in waiting for an answer or 
 explaining details to the slow, that he was rather to 
 be loved than feared. As he advanced in years a 
 brusque manner grew upon him, which often 
 scared the timid, both subordinates and pupils, but 
 in the end they all understood his never-failing 
 patience and love. 
 
 One who would see him in his most usual and 
 interesting relation to his pupils, however, must 
 picture him as addressing them nightly or weekly 
 from the central platform of a large upper room 
 known as the chapel, with seats arranged in tiers, 
 so that one addressing the audience could hold 
 every eye, where seven hundred men and women, 
 Indian, Negro and white, were gathered to listen to 
 him. On such occasions he felt and appeared like 
 a general taking command of his little army, an 
 army organized to fight vice and ignorance, against 
 which he stood forth as if they had been foes of 
 
19° Samuel Chapman Armstfongf 
 
 flesh and blood. It was his custom to hold by rapid 
 question and answer, as in his class-room, the atten- 
 tion of his childlike audience. 
 
 An excellent example of his method of address 
 is the following, delivered shortly before his death 
 in 1893: 
 
 " Spend your life in doing what you can well. If you 
 can teach, teach. If you can't teach, but can cook well, 
 do that. If a man can black boots better than anything 
 else, what had he better do ? Black boots. [Laughter.] 
 Yes, and if a girl can make an excellent nurse, and do 
 that better than anything else, what had she better do ? 
 Nurse. Yes, she can do great good that way in taking 
 care of the sick and suffering. Some of our girls have 
 done great good already in that way. Do what you can 
 do well and people will respect it and respect you. 
 That is what the world wants of every one. It is a 
 great thing in life to find out what you can do well. 
 If a man can't do anything well, what's the matter 
 with him? Lazy! Yes, that's it. A lazy man can't 
 do anything well and no one wants him around. God 
 didn't make the world for lazy people. 
 
 "The Senior Class is soon to go out. You must 
 expect to teach, and you can teach well, can't you? 
 You must try, at any rate. If after trying you find 
 you can't, then do something else that you can do; but 
 give it a fair trial. This school is a school to train 
 teachers. It is bound to turn out teachers. It must 
 be honest. A great deal of money is given and spent 
 for this object, so we must honestly carry it out. 
 
 "We send out the Middle Class, too, to teach a year 
 before they take the Senior studies. How many are 
 in the Middle Class now? Seventy-five. And how 
 
At Hampton. J 870- J 890 191 
 
 many are expecting to teach? [All hands went up.] 
 All. That's good. Now I will ask some of the Seniors 
 to say what their year out teaching did for them. . , . 
 Go out from here to fight against sin. Fight the devil. 
 Fight against badness, evil and ignorance, disease, bad 
 cooking. Help your people in teaching, in care of the 
 sick, in improving land, in making better homes. Do 
 what you can do well, and do it as well as you can." 
 
 Many of these talks bore a deep religious impress, 
 and many young men and women date from them 
 their first impulse toward a true Christian life. 
 Armstrong's nature was so deeply ingrained with 
 the sense of the presence of a living God that his 
 slightest word on spiritual themes carried peculiar 
 weight. There was no pupil present who did not 
 gain from Armstrong an illuminating sense of the 
 value of his own petty routine of work, who did not 
 feel that his daily tasks were made interesting 
 because they were part of a large, comprehensible 
 plan, made worth while because behind them all 
 lay Armstrong's immovable faith in him. There 
 was no Negro, however ignorant or dull, who did 
 not at times catch a glimpse of this inspiring vision 
 of his possibilities and, if he remained long under 
 the influence of it, become moved into accept- 
 ance of it. 
 
 Though General Armstrong often expressed him- 
 self imconventionally when talking with his personal 
 friends on religious matters, in his work he adhered 
 closely to the customary forms of religious expression. 
 
192 Samuel Chapman Armstfongf 
 
 He always bore in mind where his pupils came from 
 and to what manner of life they were going, and 
 that what they carried away with them must be 
 not only genuine, but simple and easily grasped by 
 their neighbors. He saw that they must not be 
 thrown out of sympathy with what was good in the 
 methods in vogue about them, and never spoke in a 
 way calculated to disturb the simple religious con- 
 victions of his audience. Regarding religious forms 
 he once said: "They're imperfect enough, but they 
 are the best we've got." He was urgent in his 
 demands on the students to become Christians while 
 at Hampton, saying that if they did not then do 
 so they never would. He often spoke at prayer 
 meetings held by the students, encouraging a free, 
 genuine expression of religious feeling, but cutting 
 ruthlessly off long-winded remarks and expressions 
 savoring of cant. In the early days of the school, 
 when it was still in the leading-strings of the Ameri- 
 can Missionary Association, the question of "ortho- 
 dox or non-orthodox," even to the point of receiving 
 Unitarian money, * was a live one. He answered it 
 in his own direct way, and his words were as true 
 in 1890 as when they were written in 1870: 
 
 "The institute must have a positive character. It 
 has ! It is orthodox and that's the end of it, although 
 I confess I never told the school it was so, and I don't 
 believe one of our pupils knows what 'orthodox' means. 
 
 *The school received for many years a large part of its income 
 from Unitarian sources. 
 
At Hampton. J870-J890 193 
 
 We_mean to teach the precepts of Jesus Christ, accepting 
 them as inspired and as recorded in the Bible." 
 
 How truly he believed in sincere manifestations 
 of religious feeling may be seen in the following 
 letter written to a friend in 1883: 
 
 "There is now in the school the deepest and most 
 intense religious feeling I ever knew. We have instead 
 of evening prayers daily meetings of about half an hour, 
 in which the students in quick succession rise for a few 
 words of experience or prayer. In all the five hundred 
 who are present there is no excitement. It is like a 
 Quaker meeting, so quiet is it. All speak in an under- 
 tone. There is a sense of the divine presence in our 
 midst, yet these four hundred wild, passionate Negro 
 hearts, stirred to their depth, make no noise. A few 
 sobs have been heard. The stillness is only broken by 
 earnest, cheerful verses of hymns sung from time to 
 time. The most touching of all are the few-months-ago- 
 wild Indians who speak a few words in broken English 
 or a prayer in the Dakota language. . . . Routine 
 work and study go on. The school work is done in 
 better temper and style than ever." 
 
 A pupil writes of Armstrong's relations with 
 his students: 
 
 "I loved to go to evening prayers to listen to his 
 talks and his prayers for us during the night and for the 
 work he was doing. General Armstrong always spoke 
 very fast, but when he prayed it was slow and deliberate. 
 I did always enjoy his Sunday evening talks. I never 
 once grew tired of hearing him. He would often say 
 
194 Samuel Chapman Armstrongp 
 
 to those who were sleepy, 'Sleep on, I don't mind; you 
 need plenty of sleep. I will talk to those awake.' 
 When the hour came to dismiss us, he would rouse us by 
 having us sing a very lively song." 
 
 He felt the importance of keeping close relations 
 with the graduates and ex-students of the Hampton 
 school, in order that they might retain and be 
 helped by the impressions received at Hampton. 
 He said: 
 
 "Hampton is a school of civilization meant to bear 
 directly as a directive, inspiring force on these two 
 races, not only through those whom it sends out, but 
 indirectly by its influence on other institutions for 
 these races which to some degree look to it for 
 example and lessons." 
 
 He regarded these graduate workers as young 
 lieutenants in the field, fighting their first fight in 
 command of troops: 
 
 "There is a certain spirit of conquest in this work 
 that I like. We have lots of strong places to take and 
 we have the force to do it. To be bold and honest and 
 work the darkey into shape and keep the white man in 
 good humor is not very easy, but it can be done." 
 
 Many of his epigrammatic remarks remained 
 firmly fixed in their minds. Years after his death, 
 the students at Hampton sometimes held an evening 
 of quotations from his words, and many recalled 
 them with great exactness. One writes: 
 
At Hampton. J 870-1 890 195 
 
 "I shall always remember his saying, 'Help your 
 people by giving them what has been given to you.' 
 'Doing what can't be done is the glory of living.'" 
 
 This attitude of cheerful optimism was the only 
 one which could have roused the Negro to effort and 
 self-respect. General Armstrong never spoke much 
 of heredity, but always of the power of surroundings. 
 
 "Success is not a matter of conditions, but rather 
 of predestinations," he said; "not but what heredity 
 is a power in life, but that it is secondary decidedly to 
 the surroundings of a man. This fact is not appreciated 
 as it should be." 
 
 This hopeful tone pervaded every phase of Arm- 
 strong's thought. "Hopeless ones are only grave- 
 diggers for themselves and the rest." He once 
 sprang up at a meeting at Lake Mohonk, New York, 
 when an objection was made that a certain course' 
 approved by him was "impossible." "What are 
 Christians put into the world for but to do the 
 impossible in the strength of God?" he exclaimed. 
 This sentiment he commonly expressed in the 
 following story — for feeling and fun played twin 
 parts in his conversation: 
 
 " Once there was a woodchuck. . . . Now, wood- 
 chucks can't climb trees. Well, this woodchuck was 
 chased by a dog and came to a tree. He knew that if 
 he could get up this tree the dog could not catch him. 
 Now, woodchucks can't climb trees, but he had to, so 
 he did." 
 
196 Samuel Chapman Afmstrongf 
 
 Increasingly up to 1878, the year of the death of 
 his wife, to a somewhat less extent after that date, 
 General Armstrong was the center of the social life 
 at the Hampton school. The institution formed a 
 curious little isolated community, with its four or 
 five himdred blacks, its group of Indians, and 
 dominant circle of whites, mostly women. Sufficient 
 in itself socially this circle had to be, for there was 
 no social life open to it outside of its own limits. 
 When work was over, General Armstrong was the 
 first to propose boating or driving excursions, 
 picnics, and expeditions of all kinds, as if he had 
 nothing else to attend to. 
 
 "I remember," writes a friend, "however late in the 
 evening it was, he would be at our doorsteps and full 
 of some plan, no matter what trouble to himself was 
 involved. Once we took the boat to Yorktown early 
 in the morning. He was desirous of getting up an all- 
 night excursion, and was ready to send blankets and 
 mattresses anywhere." 
 
 The old "brick thing" of a house, the mansion 
 house of the Wood farm, to which he referred in a 
 letter written in 1868, was gradually made over into 
 an attractive and unique home. In the rear of the 
 solid brick and stucco of the original structure, 
 garlanded with ivies and honeysuckle and opening 
 its ample rooms in generous hospitality, was a 
 series of heterogeneous wooden additions consecrated 
 to various and ever-changing uses ; at one time, when 
 the usual recitation building had been burned, the 
 
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At Hampton. J870-J890 197 
 
 entire house became a study-hall, with blackboards 
 perched in the parlors and bulletins posted in the 
 corridors. General Armstrong's favorite room was 
 a little bay-windowed study, where, surrounded by 
 the books of his choice and pictures of his Hawaiian 
 home, he found occasional rest. Sometimes, when 
 elm and honeysuckle were in leaf and flower beside 
 the water, the old house swarmed with Commence- 
 ment guests, who sipped lemonade on its piazza and 
 perhaps looked curiously at the shabby exterior, 
 with its discolored walls and odd climax in the 
 shape of a half-crumbling greenhouse at one end. 
 One said: "Everything seems to be in good repair 
 but the General's house." In 1886 a sum was 
 reluctantly accepted by Armstrong for the rehabili- 
 tation of it. He never thought of a house except 
 as a shelter from the weather, where you could 
 meet your friends and where any one who needed 
 it could find shelter and hospitality. 
 
 During the brief hours spent at home he was often 
 silent and absorbed, and anything that was un- 
 pleasant or exciting troubled him, especially dis- 
 cussion, or "debating," as he called it. Music was 
 a great delight to him in its simpler forms, becoming 
 fatiguing when more complex. He played a little 
 on the flute, but never having time to practise upon 
 it, strove vainly thus to express his musical aspira- 
 tions. His taste for drawing, which might with train- 
 ing have developed into a real pleasure and resource 
 to him, was used only in comic illustrations in letters 
 
198 Samuel Chapman Atmstrong' 
 
 to his children. Reading was the only resource to 
 which in his home life, with its slight opportunities 
 for relaxation, he could turn. As evening drew on 
 he loved to ask a few friends to his house, where, 
 seated in his old green- velvet arm-chair, he would 
 read in his dramatic way some poems of Browning, 
 "Lord Clive," or "Martin Relph," or perhaps a 
 Latin ode or hymn — "Dies Irae" was a favorite; 
 perhaps some simple poem of nature, as Bryant's 
 "Green River." Browning was during his latter 
 years his prime favorite among poets. 
 
 He was a great reader, and his table was heaped 
 with English and American books and magazines 
 bearing on the Negro, on Indian education or the 
 general aspect of some question of humanitarian 
 science ; a book of travel or exploration, like Stanley's 
 "Darkest Africa," interested and, he said, helped 
 him, because it was the picture of a man overcoming 
 difficulties. He deeplv ^njoyed Hughes's "Life of 
 Livingstone," partly for the same reason, partly 
 because it shed light on the home and habits of the 
 Negro race in Africa. 
 
 He had no interest in the detail of what is 
 commonly called "science," but was glad to 
 know of anything that promised relief or benefit 
 to man. It was a great grief to him that 
 he could find no time for general literary and 
 classical culture. "Philanthropy is the thief of 
 time," he used to say. As early as 1870, in a letter 
 to his wife, he said: 
 
At Hampton. J870-J890 199 
 
 " I hope when I go to you to do a good deal of reading 
 and freshen up myself somewhat in the classics; this 
 rusting out is dreadful; it is wearing out. I wish I could 
 lay aside human nature as one does a cloak and gently 
 browse awhile in green pastures." 
 
 But his interest in all matters pertaining to the 
 welfare of man reached beyond the limit which his 
 brief leisure for reading allowed. He was a subscriber 
 for years to the National Divorce Reform League, 
 was interested in the industrial problems of India, 
 in the civilization of Africa, and most of all in 
 prison reform. He writes: 
 
 "If I shall ever have work or influence in the South 
 for anything beyond schools, it shall be for prison 
 reform. That has been in my thought for years. I 
 long for a chance to take hold, but it will all come out 
 all right." 
 
 His home might have been devoid of lightness 
 but that it was illuminated by a perennial love of 
 fun, a love of fim which introduced the "Presby- 
 terian war-dance" and "puss in the comer" among 
 the very elect. The "war-dance" was a "grand 
 right and left" danced to the singing of " Auld Lang 
 Syne" and gradually growing faster and faster till 
 every one was too breathless to sing. How many 
 there are who can recall the gray-haired leader 
 rushing the dancers on and calling " Faster ! Faster ! " 
 or scampering across the room or lawn chased by 
 some small boy whose young legs perforce gained 
 
200 Samuel Chapman Atmstrong 
 
 the race. He liked to tell his children, when an 
 organ-grinder went by with his monkey, that the 
 monkey hired the organ-grinder by the month to 
 carry him roimd and play for him, and that you 
 could tell it must be so, because the man walked in 
 the dust and heat and carried the monkey sitting 
 with his legs crossed, and handsomely dressed at 
 ease on top of the organ. An eclipse of the sun 
 which he saw in New York he describes as follows : 
 
 "Did I mention the eclipse? It passed off creditably 
 as seen through a piece of smoked glass which I bought 
 of a boy in the streets for ten cents. It amounted to 
 this, that the sun charged ten cents for every spectator 
 and must have made a good deal of money out of it, 
 unless the wretches who sold the glass failed to 'go 
 snacks' with his Imperial Majesty the sun. If so, there 
 will not be another eclipse soon." 
 
 The confiding belief of his little girls in these 
 fables was a source of great delight to him. Indeed, 
 his relation with them was for many years the 
 greatest pleasure of his lonely life. While they were 
 still small girls he wrote constantly to them, 
 often in a series of story-letters in which cats, 
 dogs, missionaries and good and bad boys and girls 
 figure in delightful profusion, and in which the good 
 are rewarded and the wicked punished with a fidelity 
 peculiar to fiction. 
 
 Fortunately for the permanence of his influence 
 on young colored men and women, he did not 
 
At Hampton. J 870- J 890 201 
 
 forget that they were but boys and girls and must 
 have healthy fun and recreation as much as his own 
 children : 
 
 "A social influence over them is all-important, I 
 think. Whatever you do, get hold of their amusements; 
 supply something that will delight them. I am con- 
 vinced of the necessity of organizing pleasure as well as 
 religion in order to sustain Christian morality. Sur- 
 rounding influences are, on the human side, the great 
 uplifting power. The power of it is marvelous, es- 
 pecially on the moral character. Anything short of 
 personal knowledge of and influence over them 
 amounts to little. . . . Here once in a while we 
 play games, teachers always present; the whole thing 
 kept well in hand, limited to an hour. The whole 
 matter is talked frankly and freely over with students, 
 and very bright, happy times through ten years' ex- 
 perience shows it to be wise for us. . . . Efforts 
 on the social side may seem discouraging, but touch 
 and sympathy with natives * must be kept up, if it is 
 hard work. It will pay when trouble comes." 
 
 One part of his house was built in his last years 
 for the express purpose of recreation, both of pupils 
 and of teachers. He did not live to organize his 
 favorite games there, but the room, under the 
 name of the recreation room, remains as a reminder of 
 his insistence upon the importance of healthy play 
 for all. 
 
 His teachers discussed frankly with him plans for 
 the growth of the school. In these discussions he 
 
 * Spoken of Hawaiians, but applied equally to Negroes. 
 
202 SamocI Chapman Armsttong 
 
 was singularly open to suggestion, and never seemed 
 to regard the school as his own, but rather as a trust 
 which he held for the nation. Every new idea he 
 listened to with eagerness and incorporated in his 
 work if there was any good in it. It was his theory 
 that the institution was a kind of experiment 
 station where the worth of various theories could be 
 proved. It is an instance of his amenableness to 
 suggestion that he often invited a free written 
 expression of opinion from subordinates in regard 
 to their departments, though keeping his own 
 counsel in regard to the acceptance of advice : 
 
 "I have seldom followed advice implicitly, which is 
 sometimes the best and sometimes the worst thing in 
 the world, according to the good sense of the giver, but 
 it has been of unspeakable value as stimulating thought 
 and has led to much change of direction ; one ' caroms ' 
 on it, as one billiard ball does on another." * 
 
 It will readily be seen that much of his success in 
 dealing with an impressionable race like the Negro 
 lay in his selection of assistants. He believed that 
 most of the teachers engaged in preparing pupils 
 for teaching in the public schools should be women, 
 as he thought their influence over the blacks of a 
 more refining nature than that of men, so that for 
 many years most of his assistants were women. 
 One who was closely and for a long time associated 
 with him writes: 
 
 ♦Address at Hawaiian Islands, 1891. 
 
At Hampton. W0-tZ90 203 
 
 "General Armstrong had strong convictions in regard 
 to 'culture' training for teachers; for this reason he 
 rather leaned toward college-trained teachers, or women 
 
 of broad culture coming from families like the B s 
 
 [a well-known family of inherited intellectual ability]. 
 He felt that the lack of knowledge in theory and practice 
 which these teachers often show was offset by their 
 superior mental culture. He was often heard to say 
 that such students as those at Hampton needed to be 
 surrounded by ladies and gentlemen of culture ; that the 
 Negro was quick to recognize ' de quality.' " 
 
 In his eagerness to help the unfortunate wherever 
 they were he sometimes invited persons in the con- 
 dition known as "down on their luck" to become 
 teachers at Hampton, expecting, it would seem, 
 that as the inspiration from contact with so great 
 a cause came upon them, the faults which had 
 brought them to this condition would be remedied. 
 One or two of these persons were usually to be found 
 at Hampton occupied in some branch of work 
 devised especially for them, oddly incongruous 
 elements, but not disloyal to the genuine kindness 
 which brought them there. From his earliest to his 
 last days Armstrong's sun rose alike upon the evil 
 and the good; on the whole, however, he gathered 
 together a strong body of teachers, remarkably suc- 
 cessful in working together. 
 
 '* In our associated life at Hampton, of all things we 
 wish charity and consideration for each other. Hasty 
 and sharp expressions when we differ are most mis- 
 
204 Samuel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 chievous; good temperament is the great thing to 
 secure unity and a never-broken mutual cooperation in 
 making our work as strong and perfect as possible." 
 
 Having in mind always, like another great 
 teacher, Thomas Arnold, that education which is 
 not moral and spiritual is worse than no education, 
 he yet bound his teachers to no creed. Speaking 
 of one's coming, he said: 
 
 "She need not be 'orthodox,' but simply loyal to the 
 school as it is and do the best she can. A fine, well- 
 developed personality, along with skill in teaching, 
 makes, I think, an ideal teacner, but they do not often 
 go together." 
 
 He eagerly seized on people whom he thought 
 adapted to Hampton, and drew them there often 
 against pressure from their homes, or even against 
 their own previous inclination; for as he said, "I 
 want people whom everybody else wants." When 
 they were there he tried to make them happy, encour- 
 aging any reasonable taste or hobby in them, or 
 urging them to develop new lines of work at Hamp- 
 ton ; for he valued the faculty of originality in sub- 
 ordinates as a sign of potential influence and innate 
 power. Yet, although intending to allow full scope 
 for the individuality of each teacher, he was unable 
 to avoid impressing his own marked characteristics 
 upon them to some extent; a fact to which is due 
 largely the impression of unity between the man 
 and his work which was made on every visitor. 
 
At Hampton. J870-J890 205 
 
 His ideal of the scope of a teacher's work was 
 high: 
 
 "The country and people must be studied by them as 
 none of us are able to do. Only by touching the people 
 he is working for can a teacher get the true range and 
 do his best work." 
 
 He believed that the study of man, the conditions 
 of civilization, of history and the laws of develop- 
 ment were necessary in order to make a successful 
 teacher of the Negro and Indian races. 
 
 "Many teachers seem to me," he said, "to have 
 disproportionate ideas of the forces that make up man. 
 . . . There is plenty of study of methods, not enough 
 of study of men or of the problems of life." 
 
 He considered the gain to the teacher to be equal 
 to the gain to the pupil at Hampton : 
 
 "We are forced to do work that by bringing us more 
 directly into the line of God's providence gives us a 
 drill that is as good as any that is given to our students." 
 
 He desired that no teacher should come to 
 Hampton unless filled with a spirit of helpfulness to 
 the unfortunate. In a letter urging one to accept 
 an offer of a teacher's place there he says: 
 
 " You well-bom, from good homes, have a great advan- 
 tage over these children of darkness and misfortune. 
 These pupils are in earnest and are to be teachers and 
 
2o6 Samoel Chapman Atmstfong 
 
 leaders, and in putting your mark on them you are 
 putting it on many others." 
 
 The labor system first recognized by General 
 Armstrong as the distinguishing mark of the 
 Hampton school assumed more and more impor- 
 tance as the years went by. The circumstances of 
 its earliest years and the final and permanent out- 
 come of General Armstrong's work for the principle 
 of combined manual labor and mental work are 
 best told by Booker T. Washington:* 
 
 "When General Armstrong undertook to introduce 
 industrial education at Hampton, the whole subject 
 was new, not only to the Negro, but to northern and 
 southern white people. The general impression which 
 prevailed among a large number of colored people, 
 especially those who lived in cities in the North and 
 who had received some advantages of education, was 
 that industrial education was something which was 
 meant to retain the Negro in a kind of slavery to limit 
 his sphere of activity. Many of the colored people 
 felt, also, that it was a kind of education that was to 
 be applied to the colored people only. Added to this 
 difficulty was another. The southern white people as 
 a rule approved of industrial education. This made 
 the colored people all the more suspicious of its value 
 and object. They applied in a measure the same rule 
 to this that they applied to politics in the early years of 
 freedom. If a southern white man favored a certain 
 
 ♦Principal of Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama, who 
 at Hampton Institute in its earlier years received the baptism 
 of General Armstrong's spirit and has since his graduation 
 carried on a similar work. 
 
At Hampton. ^870-J890 207 
 
 political measure, the colored people usually opposed 
 it. Many felt that if industrial education was a good 
 thing for the Negro the southern white man would 
 not favor it. 
 
 "For a number of years after the work was started 
 at Hampton it was misunderstood in the directions to 
 which I have referred, as well as in many others which 
 I shall not take the time to name. General Armstrong, 
 however, went on calmly pursuing the ends that he had 
 in view, seldom stopping to explain himself or to be 
 troubled by misrepresentations. He realized the value 
 of what he had in mind, and felt sure that in the 
 end the whole country would understand him and come 
 around to his position, 
 
 "As I have often heard him explain his theory of 
 industrial education — both to me personally and to the 
 school — when I was a student at Hampton, I think I 
 might state his objects briefly as follows: 
 
 "First. He was anxious to give the colored people 
 an idea of the dignity, the beauty and civilizing power 
 of intelligent labor with the hand. He was conscious 
 of the fact that he was dealing with a race that had 
 little necessity to labor in its native land before coming 
 to America, and after coming to this country was forced 
 to labor for two hundred and fifty years under circum- 
 stances that were not calculated to make the race fond 
 of hard work. 
 
 "Second. It was his object to teach the Negro to 
 lift labor out of drudgery and toil by putting thought 
 and skill into it. 
 
 "Third. He saw that through the medium of indus- 
 trial education he could bring the two races in the 
 South into closer relations with each other. He knew 
 that in other matters there were differences which it 
 would take years to change, but he knew that indus- 
 
2o8 Samuel Chapman Afmstfong 
 
 trially the interests of the two races were identical in 
 the South, and that as soon as he could prove to a south- 
 ern white man that an educated skilled Negro workman 
 was of more value to the community than an ignorant, 
 shiftless one, the southern white man would take 
 an interest in the education of the black boy. 
 
 "Fourth. Through the industrial system at the 
 Hampton Institute it was his object to give the students 
 an opportunity to work out a portion of their boarding 
 expenses. In this way he meant to prevent the school 
 becoming a hothouse for producing students with no 
 power of self-help or independence. I have often heard 
 him say that the mere effort which the student put forth 
 through the industries at Hampton to help himself was 
 of the greatest value to the student, whether the labor 
 itself was of very much value or not. In a word, he 
 meant to use the industries as a means for building 
 character — to teach that all forms of labor were hon- 
 orable and all forms of idleness a disgrace. 
 
 "The idea of industrial education, beginning for our 
 people at Hampton, has gradually spread among them 
 until I am safe in saying that it has permeated the 
 whole race in every section of the country. There is 
 not a State in the Union where there is any considerable 
 proportion of our race whose influence counts for any- 
 thing in which they are not interested in industrial 
 education and are manifesting this interest by the 
 establishment of a school or by other substantial helps. 
 They now realize, as never before, that the education of 
 the head, the heart and the hand must go together. 
 That while we need classical and professional men, we 
 need a still larger number trained along industrial lines. 
 
 " Not only has General Armstrong's belief in industrial 
 education spread among our people in the South, but 
 its influence is felt in the West Indies and Africa and 
 
At Hampton, J870-J890 209 
 
 other foreign countries, to such an extent that there are 
 many calls coming from these countries for industrial 
 education. 
 
 "The work at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial 
 Institute is simply one of the results of the work of the 
 Hampton Institute. There are a number of industrial 
 schools, either small or large, in every State where there 
 are any considerable number of our people. 
 
 "Perhaps the most interesting thing in connection 
 with the influence of General Armstrong is the rapid 
 growth and spread of industrial education among the 
 southern white people. For a number of years after 
 the Harnpton Institute was started the southern white 
 people gave no attention to the subject, and rather took 
 for granted, I think, that it was something in which the 
 Negroes only should receive training. But as they 
 realized from year to year the rapid growth of industrial 
 education among the colored people and the skill and 
 intelligence which they were acquiring, southern white 
 educators here and there began to make investigation 
 and to inquire whether or not the same kind of educa- 
 tion was not needed for the southern white boy and girl, 
 and very carefully and modestly at first industries were 
 introduced into a white school here and there. These 
 schools, however, were not very popular among the white 
 people at first, but the idea of industrial education 
 among the southern white people has spread until at 
 the present moment I think every southern State has 
 one or more institutions established for this kind of 
 training for white youths, and the industrial idea has 
 become almost as popular among the white people as 
 among the colored people. 
 
 "I think I am not going too far when I make one other 
 suggestion, and that is that the whole country owes 
 General .A^rmstrong a debt not only for the rapid and 
 
2IO Samuel Chapman Atmstfongf 
 
 permanent growth of industrial education among the 
 colored people and white people of the South, but it is 
 to him that all are indebted more than to any one man 
 for the growth of the hand training in the northern and 
 western States. It is seldom, in my opinion, that one 
 individual has had the opportunity through a single 
 idea to revolutionize the educational thought and 
 activity of so large a proportion of the world as has 
 been true of the founder of Hampton."* 
 
 The idea referred to by Mr. Washington as held 
 by the Negroes — namely, that industrial education 
 tended to lower them in their own eyes and in the 
 esteem of others — contains this germ of truth, that 
 in the economic sense an education for labor alone, 
 even for skilled labor, is a class education. Many 
 Southerners no doubt acquiesced in the idea of indus- 
 trial education for the Negroes, because they thought 
 that to keep them artisans, mechanics and farmers 
 was to keep them in a class by themselves, and a 
 class separated from their own by a lack of culture 
 and of common social meeting-ground. It was 
 no wonder that the colored race distrusted 
 Armstrong's scheme of combined labor and learning 
 and that they sought the advantages of Hampton 
 for many years more because of the intellectual 
 than the manual training afforded there. 
 
 General Armstrong, however, conceived of the 
 value of labor in a different way ; he did not wish to 
 make a labor caste, a social grade of hand-workers, 
 although their skill and training should force 
 
 * Written for this book. 
 
At Hampton. J870-J890 211 
 
 respect for their race ; he simply saw that habits of 
 labor constituted a great and the only conceivable 
 moral force that would lift the average Negro from 
 his attitude of indifference and slovenliness to one 
 of earnest endeavor and industry. 
 
 As the manual-training system worked itself out 
 at Hampton, Armstrong held with an iron grip to his 
 original idea, " Labor as a moral force, " and produc- 
 tive labor,* because it taught the student more life 
 if less trade. He was filled through and through 
 with a deep sense that by hard work alone can any 
 of us be saved — a sense based on many obscure 
 foundations of observation and deduction. Away 
 back in the comers of his mind were recollections 
 of sundry wood-choppings and milkings carried on 
 under protest by himself and his companions, and 
 knowledge, too, of how his father and mother had 
 spent their ambitious youth in work, the mother 
 spinning by the fireside, the father doing chores at 
 his home in Pennsylvania. It was the boys who 
 faced and conquered hard physical jobs that became 
 the men of endurance later. These half-defined 
 thoughts did much to shape his policy toward the 
 Negro. What builds character in one man builds 
 it in another, he thought, and forthwith set about 
 to imitate the old home training — ^hard work done 
 for the sake of the product and rewarded by the 
 satisfaction of accomplishment, as well as by more 
 
 * That is, as opposed to the technical method which teaches 
 principles alone and as a general rule destroys the product. 
 
212 Samttel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 tangible benefits — ^but to better it by more instruc- 
 tion than his parents ever got in doing their chores. 
 Writing (in 1887) of the St. Louis Manual-Labor 
 Training-School, he said: 
 
 " The manual instruction is given on the Russian plan ; 
 that is, men are taught to make those forms of wood 
 and iron which enter into every article that can be made 
 of these materials ; just as girls learn the piano by playing 
 exercises and not tunes. . . . It is no experiment. 
 It is the nearest to perfection of the fine methods of 
 training head and hand together that I know of . . . . 
 I only here remark that such a labor school belongs 
 rather to a high civilization. The student's personal 
 support is assured by the accumulated savings of edu- 
 cated generations. There is nothing to do but to go 
 directly at the special work in hand. At Hampton, 
 for instance, and in like schools for like people, the bread 
 and butter and clothes question is primary if not para- 
 mount. They must have something to eat before they 
 can be taught. So we pay them for their work, instead 
 of, as in St. Louis, being paid for what work we give 
 them. We must make not ideal articles, but things we 
 can sell or eat, or it will be all up with us. In doing 
 this our workmen learn much, not so thoroughly, nicely 
 and quickly as by the Russian method, but perhaps 
 better for the rougher life and experience of the South 
 and West. A rounded character rather than mere 
 technical skill is our point. The morale of the one is 
 assumed ; in the other it is to be created. 
 
 "They wish to make a specialist; we wish to make a 
 self-reliant man. They chisel daintily away at one 
 who is 'heir of all the ages,' to make him a little more 
 perfect. We hew from the raw material men who have 
 
At Hampton. I870-I890 213 
 
 come out of deep darkness and wrong, without inherit- 
 ance but of savage nature, the best product we can, and 
 care as much to infuse it with a spiritual Hfe and divine 
 energy as with knowledge of the saw, plane and hoe. 
 Such work is full of inspiration. It drags only because 
 few appreciate the tremendous drain on the skill and 
 resources required. . . . There must be a differ- 
 ence in the educational methods for the races in our 
 country that are a thousand years behind the whites 
 in the line of development." 
 
 He writes in 1885: 
 
 " Eventually, special training should be given to 
 special students. It is only a question of time and 
 money when we shall have a technical department here 
 equal to any in the northern cities. It is precisely in 
 the line of our development. Constant work for wages 
 and discipline is the foundation of our industrial and 
 academic system. Special class-training in mechanical 
 principles for the higher walks of labor should be its 
 completion. , . . We aim to train teachers for 
 teaching schools in the South, taking the best material 
 from our industrial departments." 
 
 As the Negro advanced from what Armstrong 
 called "the dead level of slavery" into a state of 
 division into classes, the originally simple system 
 in vogue at Hampton became more complex. The 
 coming of the Indians, too, made necessary chaiTges 
 in the industrial departments that were productive 
 of widespread results. Indeed, the coming of the 
 Indians marked a distinct step in the advance of 
 the Hampton school. Next to the tour of the 
 
214 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 Jubilee Singers, it brought the school into wider 
 prominence than any event.* The War Department 
 undertook the tuition charges of these new pupils, 
 but General Armstrong assumed the other expenses. 
 The Indians, unlike the Negroes, were not inured 
 to work, but held it in lofty contempt, an attitude 
 General Armstrong thought as fatal to their devel- 
 opment as the laziness of the Negro. He quotes 
 in a report, with approval, the words of Secretary- 
 Teller : 
 
 "The Indian question will never be settled till you 
 make the Indian blister his hands. No people ever 
 emerged from barbarism that did not emerge through 
 labor." 
 
 He himself said on this subject: 
 
 "The Indian's endowment of land and his right to 
 rations is like a millstone around his neck, for only when 
 it is work or starve will the average man work." f 
 
 So, although the Government paid the bills, the 
 red man had to go to work; and his work, directed 
 toward trade-learning rather than toward a finished 
 product, gave an impetus to technical training 
 throughout the school. 
 
 Many regarded the introduction of the Indians 
 
 ♦The Indians first came in 1878, brought by Capt. R. H. Pratt, 
 then an officer of the regular army in charge of Indian prisoners 
 at St. Augustine, Florida. Seeing their deplorable condition, 
 he wrote Armstrong for permission for seventeen of them to enter 
 the institute. 
 
 fReferring to agency system. Report of 1887. 
 
At Hampton, J 870-1 890 215 
 
 as a very doubtful experiment. The mingling of 
 races in close companionship and the added financial 
 needs the Indians would bring contained possibilities 
 of trouble. But on the whole it proved to be a wise 
 step and justified Armstrong's confidence in the 
 Hampton school. The new race was assimilated 
 and became an element of strength. No serious 
 trouble occurred between the races, and the effect 
 on Negroes and Indians alike was to broaden their 
 conceptions of man and duty. The coming of the 
 Indians also brought the institute into closer 
 relations with its southern neighbors, who had a 
 sympathy with the Indian which they could not 
 summon for the Negro. From this time General 
 Armstrong was able to rely confidently upon some 
 of his neighbors for support in his work. 
 
 Not upon all, however. The Hampton Institute 
 was not free from those attacks upon its work and 
 character which usually attend successful enterprises. 
 In 1886 a complaint was made by some persons 
 living in the vicinity of the school that they were 
 oppressed by its industrial competition. General 
 Armstrong personally urged at Richmond the 
 appointment of an investigating committee, which 
 was asked for by the complainants, and gave every 
 opportunity to get at the truth. The investigation 
 ended in a hearty endorsement of the Institute. 
 General Armstrong never allowed this attack to 
 influence his belief in the kindliness of his neighbors, 
 saying publicly that "the Hampton Institute was 
 
2i6 Samttel Chapman Atmstfongf 
 
 generously recognized and appreciated, and that 
 the investigation, so far from doing harm, had 
 done much good." 
 
 Two years later more serious charges were made 
 against General Armstrong and his work for the 
 Indians. These attacks foilowed soon after his par- 
 tial recovery from a severe illness in 1886, continued 
 for months in the form of oft-repeated newspaper 
 charges, disproved only to be repeated again, and 
 wore greatly upon him. 
 
 His attitude toward all these attacks was char- 
 acteristic. 
 
 "Our point," he wrote, "is not to clear ourselves, 
 but to bring out the whole truth. None of us are too 
 good for an investigation. . . . Any assumption 
 of correctness is intolerable. I wish always bottom 
 facts. In missionary work especially the whole truth 
 should always be told." 
 
 Instead of making formal defense of the insti- 
 tution, he requested a committee of investigation 
 to be sent from Washington, and invited men 
 whose opinion carried local weight to go over the 
 ground fully and freely with him. 
 
 "This is the point of issue," he wrote; "not to hurrah 
 for Hampton, but to see that things are fairly looked 
 into." 
 
 A few recommendations were made by the com- 
 mittee and were promptly carried out. 
 
At Hampton. J 870- J 890 217 
 
 So as an experiment of which the details must 
 be worked out from day to day and which was 
 liable to mistakes and misconstruction, General 
 Armstrong's work grew, 
 
 "Though every forward step has oeen r struggle," 
 he wrote in 1890, "the school has been a growth, deep- 
 rooted and healthy. We are here not merely to educate 
 students, but to make men and women out of individ- 
 uals belonging to the down-trodden and despised races; 
 to make of them not accomplished scholars, but to build 
 up character and manhood; to fit the best among them 
 to become teachers and apply the best educational 
 methods, for the work is a rounded one, touching 
 the whole circle of life and demanding the best energies 
 of those who take it up. In God's providence it has 
 been especially given to this nation as a work to be 
 done, and to be done now, not only for reasons of 
 honor and humanity, but from the lower motives of 
 self-preservation, for our own safety as much as for 
 the good of those who are entreating us for help." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 In the North. 1870- 1890 
 
 Not more than half of this period of twenty 
 years was spent at Hampton. To organize, stim- 
 ulate and oversee the growing institution would 
 seem to be work enough for one man; but since 
 the very existence of Hampton depended on money, 
 and money must be sought where it could be found. 
 General Armstrong became an equally familiar 
 figure in the streets of Boston and on the shell 
 roads of Hampton. Two-thirds of his immense 
 energies were spent in getting money to carry out 
 the ideas that his brain was continually evolving — 
 money in amounts generally so inadequate to his 
 needs as to render necessary a constant adjustment 
 of ends to means, modifications of his ideals within 
 the bounds of what he could do with the money he 
 had — a limitation ever present with the idealist who 
 not only dreams but does. 
 
 In his early trips to the North he had to deal 
 with a public weary with the story of southern 
 outrages. 
 
 " I am getting up meetings in the various cities of 
 eastern Massachusetts," he wrote to a brother in 1870. 
 
 218 
 
In the North. J 870- J 890 219 
 
 "People here have gotten tired of the Negro question, 
 and wind and tide are against me. It is fearful to 
 throw oneself against the popular current, and it is 
 the most exhausting thing I ever tried. Northern 
 people are so busy that they don't know what is the 
 real state of things at the South. The story of 
 Ku-Klux and blood is so familiar that no one 
 notices it." 
 
 These early appeals were made at a time when 
 business was in the process of recuperation after 
 the stress of war time and when charitable people 
 were besieged for aid to those left helpless by 
 bereavement or disablement ; moreover, the capabil- 
 ities of the Negro race were distrusted at this time, 
 when the excesses of the reconstruction period 
 were still of recent occurrence ; nor were people gen- 
 erally disposed to look with favor on a theory that 
 at Oberlin and kindred schools had already resulted 
 unsuccessfully,* the theory of the mingling of mental 
 with manual work. They failed to see what Arm- 
 strong had already clearly perceived, that, rightly 
 applied, the theory of education by training the 
 hand was in a short timie to affect education radically 
 throughout America; that it would at length take 
 the place of all other methods in the training of 
 undeveloped races. 
 
 He hoped that his appeals might in a few years 
 bring an answer adequate to the needs of the Negro, 
 but money came slowly. 
 
 He returned again and again to his home at 
 
 *See page 158, 
 
2 20 Samtiel Chapman Afmstrong 
 
 Hampton, between his money-raising "campaigns," 
 as he called them, hoping to be able to rest and 
 organize his work there, and to enjoy his peaceful 
 home life and the society of the little family growing 
 up by his side. He soon saw, however, that if the 
 school was to continue its growth there was to be 
 no end to this effort while he lived, and he resigned 
 with sorrow this pleasant anticipation. His early 
 hope he expressed in a letter to his mother, 
 written August, 1870: 
 
 "Just as soon as the building, Academic Hall, the 
 first large building on the grounds, is done, I must pitch 
 in for an endowment of $200,000; that is the final 
 struggle. It will cost me terribly; a three years' cam- 
 paign of the hardest kind. After it I must take a rest 
 of several months if I can afford it. This is my plan: 
 get the endowment, then go home again. Oh, for a 
 sight of the cocoanut trees!" 
 
 This particular plan of a three years' campaign 
 was never carried out; after each stay at Hampton 
 following a northern trip new needs would press 
 with the opening of the school term, expenses 
 incidental to growth would run over income, and 
 he would be forced to leave home again for a trip to 
 the North. 
 
 In a letter to his mother he thus describes an 
 early tour: 
 
 "I was told I must expect little or nothing, but I 
 had to beg. I was forced to get money to pay the 
 
In the Notth. J870-J890 221 
 
 pressing way of the school or let it go to the wall, and at 
 it I went with all my might and haven't had a day's 
 rest for two months. It is hard — this begging; it takes 
 all one's nervous and physical strength, even when 
 people are kind and polite, as they generally are. It is 
 never and never can be easy, and I have always to use 
 all my strength, fire every gun in order to bring to the 
 hurried, worried business men that powerful influence 
 that alone can secure money in a place like Boston, 
 where for every dollar that even the richest are able to 
 give there are ten chances to put it to good use and 
 twenty demands for it from one source or another. It 
 is amazing how hard is the pressure of appeal and yet 
 how polite and good-natured most people are, how 
 patiently they listen and how many give up their last 
 spare dollar not needed for personal comfort, Boston 
 has been educated to giving and gives splendidly. But 
 thousands are turned away — few succeed, many fail 
 who try for money, just as in the business world. In all 
 this howling appeal and fearful competition of charities 
 I have been making the best fight I could — watching 
 every chance, following up every chance, finding 
 out new people, making new friends to the cause, 
 talking in houses and in churches, at parties and at 
 dinner tables, in season and out of season, and on the 
 whole I have done well. ... I am received always 
 in the pleas antest way by the best people and have 
 made a great many strong friends. Am rushing 
 about all the time and necessity is after me sharp. 
 . . . Am going to drive things while there's any 
 life in me. I am well and think I can stand it ; success 
 is the best medicine and will cure me. ... I 
 have raised several thousand dollars, and am con- 
 sidered to have had remarkable success, considering 
 the times." 
 
i22 Samuel Chapman Armsttong 
 
 There was at the time of these first trips in the 
 North a group of persons in and about Boston who 
 had been prominent in war and sanitary commis- 
 sion affairs — men and women of mature age, social 
 position and comfortable incomes. Most of this 
 group were women, the men of their generation 
 being deeply engrossed in affairs or disabled or 
 killed in the war. Such names as Quincy, Wiggles- 
 worth, Cooper, Paine, Loring, Bowditch, Putnam, 
 Fields, Claflin, Hemenway and Parkman suggest 
 this group of public-spirited citizens, who not only 
 gave their interest and money to help the cause, 
 but their personal friendship. 
 
 This friendship began, in many cases, in November, 
 187 1, when Mrs. Augustus Hemenway asked General 
 Armstrong and his young wife and baby to visit 
 her in Boston. Under her social guardianship 
 General and Mrs. Armstrong heard good music 
 and drama and widened greatly their circle of 
 acquaintance. 
 
 A cordial personal recognition was an agreeable 
 relief from the strain of debt and financial responsi- 
 bility that even now bore him down with a crushing 
 weight. It was to prove not only a pleasant inci- 
 dent in his career, but an event of vital importance 
 to his work, for a social introduction proved to be 
 the very means whereby he was able to approach 
 and to know charitable Boston. He saw that here 
 was an opportunity to meet the people, many of 
 whom had been friends to the rights of the Neero 
 
In the North. J 870- J 890 223 
 
 when abolitionism was unfashionable and who were 
 the most ready of all in the North to help and under- 
 stand his work. For their part, they saw in the 
 freshness and vigor of the man, in his entire absence 
 of selfish ambition and in his notable war record 
 promise of future success. They were attracted 
 by his delight in working for the right — his youth- 
 ful buoyancy of outlook joined to intense moral 
 earnestness, qualities that spoke of staying power 
 and effectiveness. The man who could say, "Isn't 
 it jolly to be a mounted soldier in the service of 
 the Lord?" would never desert his colors. Later 
 they became convinced of the wisdom of his plans, 
 and from that time on this group of people gave 
 him hearty social and moral backing and financial 
 support in general, though the great fortunes with 
 which universities are founded were not theirs 
 to give. 
 
 That he succeeded early in persuading men and 
 women of moral influence to lend their support 
 to his plans is shown by the fact that on January 
 27, 1870, his first public meeting, held in Music 
 Hall, Boston, under the auspices of the Hawaiian 
 Club of Boston, through his old and intimate friend 
 General J. F. B. Marshall, was presided over by 
 Governor Claflin, and attended by many of the 
 philanthropic people of Boston. This meeting 
 marked the beginning of a two months' campaign 
 which was the first of a series that extended over a 
 period of twenty years. 
 
2 24 Samuel Chapman Aimstfongf 
 
 It is a striking comment on these times, as General 
 Armstrong noted, that on the very night when 
 this meeting was held which marked the organiza- 
 tion of Hampton's work in New England, all that 
 was left of the old Abolition Society met to lay 
 down its arms and give up its organization, resolv- 
 ing that nothing remained for it to do. "It failed 
 to see," as General Armstrong says, "that every- 
 thing remained. Their work was just beginning 
 when slavery was abolished." 
 
 It must not be imagined that he confined himself 
 to making friends among the naturally philan- 
 thropic and the well-to-do classes. He desired 
 from the beginning and throughout his life that 
 his work should be the work of the people, and 
 such to a peculiar extent it was. A glance at the 
 record of gifts to Hampton for this period of twenty 
 years shows that the majority of the individual 
 gifts range from ten to fifty dollars. Poor country 
 churches and religious societies sent small sums 
 yearly; many persons gave sparingly, as they could 
 afford it, out of moderate incomes; church fairs 
 and Sunday-schools sent small amounts from time 
 to time. It was the custom in many New England 
 churches to take up a quarterly or yearly collec- 
 tion for Hampton, grouping it with their contribu- 
 tions to foreign missions or the evangelization of 
 the new West. Hampton took its place in New 
 England as a charity of recognized worth. Clubs or 
 committees were organized which pledged them- 
 
In the North. J870-J890 225 
 
 selves to send a fixed sum yearly; a scholarship 
 or a small sum of money which paid the tuition of 
 one student for one year and established a personal 
 relation between giver and recipient was a favorite 
 mode of giving. From such sources about one-half 
 of the income of Hampton was derived for twenty 
 years. 
 
 Armstrong's greatest single effort to enlist public 
 interest was the tour of the Hampton Jubilee 
 Singers, beginning in February, 1872, and lasting 
 until June, 1875, The immediate occasion for it 
 was the pressing need first felt in the fall of 1871 
 for better accommodations for girls ; but as early as 
 this year General Armstrong felt the need of a 
 permanent endowment fund, something that would 
 yield a regular interest and leave him more time 
 for improving the school itself. The singers started 
 on their long tour hoping to raise a sum of at least 
 $200,000 for this purpose. 
 
 Many obstacles lay before them : the Fisk Jubilee 
 Singers, aided by the influence of the American 
 Missionary Association, had just finished their 
 series of concerts in the North; it was doubtful 
 whether the enthusiasm they had aroused could 
 be awakened so soon again by a Negro chorus. 
 Speculators assuming the name of jubilee singers 
 were prejudicing people against all such companies ; 
 the expense of the trip would be great ; many thought 
 that it would demoralize the student singers and 
 thus react for evil on the school. But Armstrong 
 
2 26 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 had made up his mind to raise the needed $200,000, 
 and relied on the help of friends in the North and 
 on the charm of that music which, once heard, draws 
 the hearer again to listen to its wild and plaintive 
 tones. 
 
 February 13, 1872, the party started. General 
 Armstrong regarded the duration of the tour as 
 indefinite, expecting to extend it to England and 
 California if it was successful. The party traveled 
 by day and gave their concerts generally in the 
 evening, taking their school-books with them and 
 studying persistently while on train or boat in order 
 to keep up with their classes. Audiences, indeed, 
 were not so large as those that gathered to listen to 
 the Fisk singers, nor were the sums of money taken 
 in as great. At the close of the first year $10,000 
 was sent back to Hampton as net proceeds. The 
 second year was less directly profitable, owing to 
 the financial panic of 1874 and 1875, but much in- 
 terest was excited. Over 7,000 copies of the book, 
 "Hampton and Its Students," were sold, and a gift 
 of $10,000 was made for the completion of a chapel 
 for general gatherings. Mrs. Augustus Hemenway 
 and Mrs. S. T. Hooper, of Boston, were present 
 at many of the concerts, lent their valuable 
 influence and prestige to the undertaking, and 
 aided in many ways to reduce expenses and excite 
 enthusiasm. The singers gave 500 concerts, 
 traveled over eighteen States, and visited Canada. 
 
 The tour of the singers did little to start an 
 
In the Nofth. J870-J890 227 
 
 endowment fund, but as an advertisement it was 
 invaluable, and in no other way could information 
 about Hampton have been so widely diffused; in 
 no other way could the acquaintance of Armstrong 
 have been enlarged so rapidly. It was the first 
 step in the larger life of the Hampton school. It 
 was the first presentation of its claim upon the 
 whole country for support. After this tour General 
 Armstrong was no longer simply the principal 
 of a struggling Negro school in Virginia ; he became 
 a public man with a scope of influence which 
 increased yearly until it became national. 
 
 Already in the midst of the trip he perceived the 
 scope of his work, its needs, its future and its sure 
 support, and wrote to the editor of a New Bedford 
 (Massachusetts) newspaper : 
 
 " I enclose a circular to which you may, I hope, call 
 attention, as it refers to a very important movement 
 and one which would probably interest your readers. 
 You will hear of it anyhow, and I write to anticipate 
 rum.or and, if possible, prevent unpleasant impressions 
 liable to be formed from my going into such an enter- 
 prise. 
 
 "The truth is, we have, as Lincoln used to say of the 
 war, a 'big job' on our hands. It's no use to whine 
 about the great demand for means to lift up the Negro 
 race. The work is not done; it is given us as a nation 
 to do. It is the duty of no section, but of every one. 
 Practically those who care for it, wherever they live, 
 do and will help; those who don't care will not. The 
 helpers are comparatively few. The money contributed 
 
228 Samuel Chapman Atmstrong; 
 
 has been in small sums — rarely has a large amount been 
 given. But aggressive, powerful institutions that make 
 their impress upon the populations need large endow- 
 ments and extensive buildings, so that students from all 
 quarters can be massed together, instructed, inspired 
 with vital truth, and sent out as builders of a better 
 civilization. Hampton aims to do the Negro race a 
 real good by supplying a host of thoughtful, trained, 
 practical teachers, who have been drilled not only in 
 books, but in shops and on the farm, in the kitchen 
 and in the sewing-room. These will teach not only 
 spelling and arithmetic, but the more important lessons 
 of respect for labor, and they will impart of their 
 own essential manhood and womanhood to those whom 
 they teach. The Negro has been taught to work, not 
 to despise it; he has the habits of labor, but no enthusi- 
 asm for it ; he is satisfied with his job if only his employer 
 is. The true laborer may not love hard work, but he 
 does his work well for the sake of doing it well and 
 takes pride in it. 
 
 "We wish to spread broadcast right ideas of life and 
 labor; to unite morality and religion in the holy tie 
 that binds them and that is not recognized here: for 
 the divorce is complete. 
 
 " Hundreds of teachers, apostles of a true Christianity 
 and civihzation, are needed. We are compelled con- 
 stantly to say to applications from all parts of Virginia, 
 'We cannot send you any more teachers.' Four times 
 as many as we can supply are needed now, and school- 
 houses are empty and thousands untaught for want of 
 them. Yet we have been forced, for want of room, 
 to reject this year thirty-five young men and women 
 who were eager to come and fit themselves to teach. 
 We have encamped thirty in old army tents in the open 
 field, and they have been for months in terrible freezing 
 
In the North. J870-J890 229 
 
 weather and exposed to howling winds. But not a 
 murmur. They'll stand it a good while yet — all this 
 and all next winter if necessary. We expect to have 
 seventy or eighty men under canvas next year. But 
 we cannot put women in tents. We have planned a 
 large dormitory, including sixty-eight girls' rooms, a 
 chapel, sewing-room, etc., capable of accommodating 
 nearly 140 women. It will cost complete $75,000. 
 We must have it next fall or send back fifty 
 colored girls to the pine-barrens and plantations. 
 It is of no use to beg. We must help ourselves. 
 We propose to give concerts, singing the old Negro 
 spirituals, of which we have collected an entirely 
 new and wonderfully beautiful number, and with the 
 avails of these concerts raise the walls of a building for 
 the education of colored women. I believe the men 
 and the women of the North will help us. They will 
 have the chance. We will give our first concert in 
 Washington next Saturday night, the isth inst., and 
 will advance upon Philadelphia, New York and Boston. 
 It is a venture and may not be successful. But it 
 seems the thing to try, for there's a power, a vividness, 
 a genuineness in this fast-dying-out music that excels 
 everything ever composed. It is the echo of old times; 
 it is full of wailing tenderness and passionate faith. 
 It will soon be gone. Why should it not be used as a 
 reminder to the North that there really was such a 
 thing as slavery and that its terrible and its worst 
 effects are upon the Negro yet? 
 
 The degradation of centuries cannot be thrown off 
 in a decade or generation. Negro civilization must 
 be a slow growth of time and of persistent, untiring 
 effort. Hampton is organized on a permanent basis 
 in order to accomplish its end, which is to see the 
 Negro through." 
 
230 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 Nothing will maintain a man under severe strain 
 so well as inspiration and a sense of humor. 
 He wrote to his class secretary from Hampton, 
 September 30, 1874: 
 
 "In obedience to your instruction I have the honor 
 to inform you of myself, life, wife and children as 
 follows : I have a remarkable machine for the elevation 
 of our colored brethren on which I mean to take out a 
 patent. Put in a raw plantation darky and he comes 
 out a gentleman of the nineteenth century. Our 
 problem is how to skip three centuries in the line of 
 development and to atone for the loss and injustice of 
 the ages. About $370,000 have been expended here 
 since I took hold in the fall of 1867. 
 
 " I have been in- the traveling show business for the 
 last two years; have given over 300 concerts with the 
 Hampton students (ex-slaves) in behalf of the school. 
 
 "This is a rough and terrible fight with difficulties, 
 but I think I'm on top. 
 
 "I am the most fortunate man in the world in my 
 family. I have a wife and two little girls — one two 
 and the other four years of age. My 'jewels' are the 
 rarest and richest on the planet. 
 
 ' ' ' Sixty-two ' men will always be welcome at my 
 home on Hampton Roads — your reverence [the class 
 secretary] especially. I have reserved the choicest 
 oysters in this paradise of oysters for the exclusive use 
 of the members of that class. 
 
 "The stake of my destiny is planted here, and I have 
 never regretted it; this is part of the war on a higher 
 plane and with spiritual weapons; it will not soon end 
 and success is yet to be won. I cannot understand the 
 prevailing views of the war among pious and intelligent 
 
In the North. J870-J890 231 
 
 Americans. It is simply barbaric — to whip the South 
 and go home rejoicing; to build monuments of victory, 
 leaving one-third of their countrymen in the depths 
 of distress. The case is chiefly moral and the duty sits 
 very lightly on the general conscience." 
 
 He paid the price for celebrity which most public 
 men must pay, however, in the sacrifice of home 
 life and in enforced separation from his family. 
 This separation was the more painful because his 
 wife's health had begitn to fail. In 1878 Mrs. Arm- 
 strong died, leaving two little girls six and eight 
 years of age. Here ended such broken home life 
 as this naturally most domestic of men had been 
 able to enjoy in his free moments; and Armstrong 
 became a kind of wanderer, finding in his life at 
 Hampton absorption in routine work and in the time 
 spent at the North a sympathy and companion- 
 ship in the society of congenial friends that was 
 lacking in his own home. 
 
 The years 1878 to 1890 may be especially called 
 the constructive period of the Hampton school; 
 during these twelve years alone eighteen large 
 buildings, at a cost of $423,400, were erected and 
 land costing $13,500 was purchased. In roimd 
 nvimbers the expenditures for "plant" alone during 
 
232 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 these years, exclusive of running expenses, amounted 
 to $500,000; from 300 students in 1878 the number 
 increased to 678 in 1886, a number not since (in 
 1902) exceeded. A natural consequence of this 
 rapid growth was a great increase in running 
 expenses; and General Armstrong was obliged to 
 raise yearly from $50,000 to $80,000 merely to keep 
 the wolf from the door. 
 
 Under the pressure of this necessity, he addressed 
 himself with new care to his work in the North, 
 like the hero of a story which he was fond of telling, 
 and which embodied what he called his "rule of 
 conduct": 
 
 "Once there was an old darky who could not be 
 dissuaded from hunting in an empty 'possum hole. 
 'Ain't no 'possum in dat hole? Dey's just got to be, 
 'cause dey's nuffin' in de house fer supper.'" 
 
 So the "'possum hole" of the North was again 
 and again invaded. He wrote to a friend, engaged 
 like himself in the education of the northern public : 
 "Punch the pubHc or you get nothing; give them 
 no peace till you get your money." A certain 
 obstinacy of the sort that fights blindly to the end 
 was aroused by these constant struggles against 
 competition, lack of interest and the prophecies 
 of failure which often came to his ears. 
 
 "The dry bones of a thousand failures are in our 
 path," he said. "The wet blanket of endless disap- 
 pointments has been thrown on us. Men say, 'You 
 can't do it.' Experienced men shake their heads; but 
 
In the North. J870-J890 233 
 
 G [a missionary friend] is going to take hold and 
 
 worry the Christian Church till it planks down the 
 money, and it's of no use. Saint and sinner must, side 
 by side, jerk the old thing till it moves. Infidel and the 
 elect will drop their mites into the contribution box 
 till it is filled. We are doing this over a vortex of 
 financial calamity, into which we hope not to fall." 
 
 In his appeal for money he always made an 
 impassioned plea, not for a direct gift of money 
 to relieve the needs of the Negro, but for money to 
 help him to help himself through a system of indus- 
 trial labor. Knowing that people are best reached 
 through their emotions, he generally took with him 
 a small band of singers, who could touch with their 
 pathetic songs hearts that remained impervious to 
 any other appeal ; and perceiving, too, that until a 
 cause is personified it has little power to touch the 
 hearts of men, he always included in his program a 
 few telling recitals of personal experiences. The aim 
 of these northern trips was not primarily to bring 
 home money, but, in his own words, "to enlist the 
 interest of the friends of southern education, and 
 if possible to give direction to the benefactions of 
 those disposed to aid in the elevation of the lately 
 enfranchised race." 
 
 He first organized his campaigns on paper, and 
 sent an agent before him to arrange for places of 
 meetings; then he himself, with a quartet of 
 Negroes, followed — accompanied, perhaps, by two 
 Indian students. Their tours extended sometimes 
 
234 Samuel Chapman Armstrongf 
 
 as far west as Chicago or St. Louis, but usually 
 centered round about the towns of New England 
 and the cities of New York and Philadelphia. If 
 the meeting was in a church at a regular Sunday 
 or week-day evening service, a collection was taken ; 
 if in a private house, none was taken. General 
 Armstrong utilized the interest felt by almost every 
 one in the slave songs, the desire of young people 
 to see an Indian, and the philanthropic sympathies 
 of many toward the freedmen, to draw audiences, 
 which gathered in elegant private drawing-rooms, 
 in hotel parlors, in churches and in schools. To 
 them spoke the little band, ever vitalized into new 
 enthusiasm by the spiritual passion which General 
 Armstrong diffused like an atmosphere about him 
 
 "I must win," he said. "I can't but see that many 
 put faith in me; it would be wrong to humanity to fail, 
 and the way is clear. God has not darkened the way, 
 but His hand points to a steep and craggy height — it 
 must be climbed — I will climb it." 
 
 To infuse enthusiasm into half-alive interests 
 seemed to be the work to which he was especially 
 dedicated by nature. 
 
 "It [enthusiasm] is a scarce article always," he 
 wrote. "Everybody is 'interested' in everything that 
 is good. We all are in the elevation of the Hottentots 
 or that the Marquesas Islanders should have shirts !" 
 
 His companion for twelve years in this work 
 
In the North. J870-J890 235 
 
 of energizing passive wills, Reverend Hollis Burke 
 Frissell, thus describes a meeting which may be 
 considered typical: 
 
 "When the other speeches had been made, General 
 Armstrong produced some large diagrams and pictures 
 of the new buildings. People were asked to take rooms 
 for furnishing at $15 each. He was so rapid in his 
 utterance that the audience could hardly hear one 
 word in ten which he spoke, but he was so intense that 
 they were interested and gave the furnishing for the 
 rooms. I think from $15,000 to $20,000 were sub- 
 scribed that night. His struggle to be deliberate in 
 speaking was always interesting. He would walk on to' 
 the stage in a very quiet way and commence slowly and 
 go faster and faster as he got into his subject. He 
 always thought it wise to present facts, statements of 
 what had been done, rather than philosophical dis- 
 quisitions and race and educational problems." 
 
 Another who often attended these meetings as 
 a listener says: 
 
 "I suppose that every lover of General Armstrong 
 recalls some special incident which seems most entirely 
 typical of the man's life and heart. For my part, I 
 think oftenest of one of those scenes in his many begging 
 journeys to the North. It was at a little suburban 
 church far down a side street on one winter night in 
 the midst of a driving storm of sleet. There was, as 
 nearly as possible, no congregation present; a score or 
 so of humble people, showing no sign of any means to 
 contribute, were scattered through the empty spaces, 
 and a dozen restless boys kicked their heels in the front 
 
236 Samuel Chapman Armstfong; 
 
 pew. Then in the midst of this emptiness and hope- 
 lessness up rose the worn, gaunt soldier as bravely and 
 gladly as if a multitude were hanging upon his words, 
 and his deep-sunk eyes looked out beyond the bleakness 
 of the scene into the world of his ideals, and the cold 
 little place was aglow with the fire that was in him, 
 and it was like the scene on the Mount, that was not any 
 less wonderful and glistening because only three undis- 
 ceming followers were permitted to see the glory."* 
 
 When he spoke, in hall, church, theater or 
 parlor, his speech gushed forth with the ease of the 
 born orator; but rapid as it was, it could not keep 
 'up with his thoughts, which seemed ever pressing 
 it outward and onward. Yet it was not the flow- 
 ing style of his contemporary, Phillips Brooks. 
 His ideas were shot forth in brief, compact sen- 
 tences, not distinguished so much by logical sequence 
 as by their power to throw flash-lights of truth 
 on different- phases of the subjects he touched. 
 Once, in commenting on a certain discussion held 
 by a number of ministers, he unintentionally char- 
 acterized his own style, saying: 
 
 "Their discussion was rather plain and perky. Not 
 one of them took the subject up and shook it as a 
 terrier dog shakes a rat." 
 
 No side of his work is more characteristic than 
 his persistent effort through times of financial stress 
 or in apparently unprofitable situations. He said: 
 
 * Reverend Francis G. Peabody, in an address delivered 
 Founders' Day, 1898. 
 
In the North. J 870- J 890 237 
 
 "Do men give more money to good work when they 
 make the most or when they think the most? For 
 twenty-three years I have worked for a charity, through 
 sharp times and through prosperous seasons, but the 
 times have made very httle difference. Nothing extra 
 is to be expected for the Lord's work in 'flush times,' 
 and a certain fine spirit carries it through the darkest 
 day." 
 
 One gets an interesting view of his own attitude 
 toward this unceasing labor of money-raising in 
 the following extract from a letter to the Southern 
 Workman: 
 
 "We are now on our way to Columbus for our thirtieth 
 meeting, having since our first, at Scranton, Pennsyl- 
 vania, on November nth, which was most successful 
 and satisfactory, held meetings in the cities of Boston, 
 New York, Cleveland (Ohio), Detroit, Milwaukee, 
 Madison, Chicago, IndianapoHs and Cincinnati. We 
 are to end with Columbus, Pittsburg, New York City 
 and Germantown, Pennsylvania, on December nth. 
 Our party consists of Reverend Mr. Frissell and myself, 
 with our quartet, two of whom, Major Boykin and 
 Mr. Daggs, are also speakers, and two Indian boys. 
 Our main object has been to create interest rather than 
 to collect money, and yet the plate collections, kindly 
 volunteered at the end of most of the meetings, will 
 probably bring a few hundred dollars over expenses. 
 A few seventy-dollar scholarships have been secured. 
 Presbyterian, Episcopal, Congregational, Baptist and 
 other churches have been most hospitably opened 
 everywhere without expense to us. Clerg3^men of 
 various denominations have usually honored the plat- 
 form and taken part with us in hearty and cordial ways. 
 
238 Samuel Chapman Armstrong: 
 
 The rich chords of the old slave music have floated 
 away into the arches of church and cathedral, or been 
 echoed by the walls of plain 'meeting houses' with 
 equally touching effect, sustaining always their fitness 
 and dignity. To the simple and original thoughts of 
 the speakers we also owed much. The first two speeches 
 are somewhat personal and descriptive; the last two 
 are broader in outlook and more general in statement, 
 and we found they are quite as appropriate for Sundays 
 as for weekday services, for they are genuine and 
 straightforward, showing that they are the honest 
 outcome of the speaker's experience. The endeavor 
 to create a breadth of interest had been one of our 
 aspirations. Our claims are second to those of local 
 charities and denominational societies created in the 
 interest of the two races whom we represent; churches 
 as such do not help Hampton, but individuals in them 
 are our help and strength. We always, I think, 
 strengthen rather than weaken the local effort for 
 Indian and Negro, and have done almost as much good 
 for other schools as for our own. Our point has been 
 to make a better and broader hope for and interest 
 in both races. But it is of little use to excite momentary 
 interest unless this is followed up by personal effort, 
 and there is seldom any one to do this, though it some- 
 times happens that some listener is moved to undertake 
 it as a labor of love. Those willing to work have 
 already all that they can do. I never realized more 
 fully how true it is that Christian churches are ' centers 
 of work.' Pulpits are used so much as advertising 
 mediums that printed Sunday bulletins are introduced 
 instead and work well. A money harvest, Hke any other, 
 comes from cultivation of the ground. We sow seed, 
 much of which would bear fruit if attended to, but at 
 the moment it is always impossible to estimate as to 
 
In the North. J870-J890 239 
 
 the effect of any meeting, for there may be far-off 
 results of which we see no present evidence. The 
 maxim of war that 'one shot in five hundred hits' 
 often occurs to me. Always, too, it has to be borne in 
 mind that an enlightened public sentiment is at the 
 foundation of all good public effort. From this point of 
 view the educational value of our thirty-five meetings 
 more than justified what they cost in time and money. 
 The usually good audiences represent only a small 
 part of those influenced. Newspaper notes and reports 
 have reached hundreds of thousands, and though only 
 glanced at by most readers, are on the side of hope and 
 faith in our 'despised races.' It is true that all this 
 is only a 'drop in the bucket,' but drop by drop the 
 bucket is filled. Ours is one of many influences by 
 which the Negro and Indian questions are kept before 
 the people. During the first twenty years after the 
 war magazines and newspapers contained little dis- 
 cussions of the 'race question'; now books, pamphlets 
 and articles on it are constantly appearing, and most 
 of them have only impracticable solutions to offer, 
 such as disenfranchisement or deportation of the 
 blacks, etc. As an object lesson, therefore, our four 
 speeches are always telling. The two Negroes and their 
 two Indian companions stand for tens of thousands 
 behind them, who only need a fair chance to become 
 good citizens. They speak their own thoughts and 
 words, not written for them, and their appeal is strong. 
 ' Give us a chance to make men and women of ourselves ' 
 is all they ask. . . . The study of audiences is 
 interesting, and we are struck by differences as we go 
 west and in the churches in which we speak. There 
 are almost always a lot of small boys in front, who 
 come to get a good look at the Indians, and can hardly 
 realize that these tall, manly, uniformed young men are 
 
240 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 the objects of their curiosity. They are a sure test 
 of the meeting; if it is too long, their gaze wanders and 
 they finally fall asleep. While their eyes are still open 
 we know all is well. The newspapers are as a rule 
 ready to lend a hand to a good cause and have been 
 uniformly kind and liberal in their motives, but there 
 is a marked difference in reporters, some catching the 
 spirit of things while others merely state the facts. 
 The freshness and vigor of the student speakers and 
 singers, after thirty-five meetings of the same kind, 
 are remarkable. No sign of weakening or of parrot- 
 like repetition can be seen — each new audience is a 
 stimulus that brings one up to his best. School studies 
 are continued in the cars and at hotels. A month out 
 is a serious thing, and would put the boys hopelessly 
 back in their studies did they not work over their 
 books every day from three to five hours. 
 
 " I notice a better feeling of late toward well-appearing 
 colored people. All hotels do not welcome our party, 
 but we can always get good places. On the whole, 
 prejudice seems to be slowly giving way. There is a 
 marked difference between to-day and 1873, when the 
 Hampton singers were out on their campaign of three 
 and a half years to erect Virginia Hall. I am sure that 
 the present expedition has done good ; the manly bearing 
 of the students has been marked and their appearance 
 at table commended. There has been no friction 
 whatever, only kindness and good will from first to 
 last. Things are improving along the whole line, too 
 slowly for some, but that revolutions do not go back- 
 ward is strikingly shown in recent American history." 
 
 On these trips he denied himself, for economy's 
 sake, the ordinary ameliorations of travel, rarely 
 even taking a parlor car. He habitually read or 
 
In the North, J870-J890 241 
 
 wrote while riding in trains, and thus it was that 
 he was able to keep up the wide range of reading 
 which held him in touch with men of widely varied 
 interests. In traveling he often went to the 
 same hotels as his colored students, refusing offers 
 of private hospitality from a sense of loyalty to the 
 race who had responded so nobly to his efforts in 
 their behalf. 
 
 General Armstrong felt that the effort of raising 
 money by such means as these, difficult as they 
 w^ere, should never be completely abandoned; for 
 he feared that the Hampton school, once comforta- 
 bly well off, would become an "easy" place for a 
 young man or woman to get an education, and 
 that the North, once free from constant appeals to 
 aid, would become indifferent to the needs of the 
 Negro and the Indian. This feeling, coupled with 
 his always earnest desire to have a fund that would 
 " lessen the severe and in more ways than one costly 
 labor of collecting income, give the school a life of 
 its own, independent of any one man's life or power, 
 and better secure it against exigencies," caused him 
 at times to speak in ways that appeared incon- 
 sistent, but it will readily be seen that his thought 
 was simple ; he desired partial, not complete endow- 
 ment. 
 
 In the course of these "begging" trips — ^his own 
 designation — there was necessarily, as his acquaint- 
 ance became larger, a vast amount of individual 
 work, carried on by means of personal calls at the 
 
242 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 houses or offices of business men or by means of 
 letters. It was his habit not to ask directly for 
 money, but to present his cause and let it plead 
 for itself, but there were times when a more direct 
 method was necessary. 
 
 "I always feel as if I was sticking my head in the 
 lion's mouth when I am asking for money. Well, it 
 has never been bitten off yet," he said. 
 
 In a letter to a friend to whom he was used to 
 apply for advice in these personal matters, he says : 
 
 "Would it be wise, do you think, to write direct 
 
 to , who must be overloaded and deafened by 
 
 continuous howls of poverty-stricken institutions and 
 humanity? But we howl, too; it is our business. But 
 it doesn't do to howl imprudently; discretion is the 
 better part of begging. My idea would be to suggest 
 a seventy-dollar scholarship given yearly, with no 
 promise whatever of continuance, taking the matter up 
 yearly for a fresh decision. I care for no pledges. 
 People who take hold here usually don't let go. Volun- 
 tary offerings are the best. Pledges are uncomfortable. 
 Still we need not a big lift all at once, but a stream 
 coming in steadily from year to year. I wish to get 
 people into this, to swell the stream, making it a river 
 of life and light to Africa." 
 
 In these personal dealings great discretion, tact 
 and delicacy were needed. To the same friend he 
 wrote : 
 
 "Many times it is better to do nothing in order to 
 succeed. People who give and who advise are com- 
 
In the North. I870-J890 243 
 
 pelled to a severe consistency and system of use both 
 of money and of influence, which is indispensable to 
 the best results. Where I have the most influence I 
 use it the least. The result, I believe, is in the end 
 far better." 
 
 In a report to the trustees, written in 1889, he 
 says: 
 
 " I never cease to wonder at the patience and kindness 
 of those who daily listen to appeals from here and some 
 other quarters, the wear and tear of which can be 
 hardly less than of those who solicit aid from these 
 overtaxed givers. Having myself sometimes been 
 called on to endorse agents from southern schools, 
 I have found it usually difficult to do justice to these 
 earnest workers and at the same time to be fair to the 
 charitable who should give in the light of all the facts. 
 I therefore venture to tell briefly and by way of 
 illustration our own methods. 
 
 "Mr. Thomas Cayton, a graduate of the Hampton 
 school and for six years a teacher, but compelled by a 
 partial loss of sight to give up this work, is sent to 
 secure subscriptions for the Southern Workman and 
 aid for and interest in the school. He presents a letter 
 from me, stating his mission, his salary, that he has no 
 commission, how his expenses are paid and the amount 
 and description of the money he collected the preced- 
 ing year. In these cases I think money should always 
 be refused unless the gifts of the preceding year are 
 accounted for. 
 
 "Nothing so encourages carelessness and waste of 
 money (of which there has been a great deal), by often 
 well-meaning agents, as taking for granted that an im- 
 pressive appeal is necessarily trustworthy. 
 
244 Samuel Chapman Afmstrong 
 
 "Those who do not keep strict accounts are not fit 
 to be trusted with money, and such accounts would 
 sometimes show a large per cent, used as expenses. 
 Care in giving means, in the end, the ability to give not 
 only more, but more wisely." 
 
 If his ovcrtiires were not at once heeded, the 
 delay or failure only stimulated him to fresh effort. 
 One of his favorite mottoes was a saying of his old 
 colonel in the Troy regiment: "Captain, when you 
 want anything and can't get it, raise the devil ! " 
 General J. F. B. Marshall said of him: 
 
 " For most people an obstacle is something in the way 
 to stop going on, but for General Armstrong it merely 
 meant something to climb over, and if he could not 
 climb all the way over he would get up as high as 
 possible and then crow!" 
 
 As he grew older he began to crave the stimulus 
 of constant hurry, work and rush, and grew impa- 
 tient after even a few days of inactivity. 
 
 "I have had a taste of blood," he said; "that is, I 
 have had the taste of life and work — cannot live with- 
 out the arena. I must be in it. . . . Despair shakes 
 his skinny hands and glares his hideous eyes on me to 
 little purpose. I feel happy when all my powers of 
 resistance are taxed." 
 
 This restless life produced its due effect physically 
 and he was troubled for years with dyspepsia and 
 sleeplessness. It is an indication of great physical 
 
In the North. I870-I890 245 
 
 vigor, the priceless legacy of his long and whole- 
 some boyhood, that in spite of this physical weak- 
 ness he was able to keep the courage and optimism 
 of his youth until middle life. He sincerely tried to 
 conquer these harmful physical tendencies, to use 
 great caution in eating and to take rest whenever 
 possible, but never succeeded in bearing in mind 
 his physical limitations when it seemed to him 
 that the welfare of Negro and Indian was at stake. 
 He wrote to his wife as early as 1870: 
 
 "Your prayer that the sweet little cherub that sits 
 up aloft may watch over me in cars, boats and hotels 
 is especially in point in respect to the latter, for do not 
 little imps hide in fried potatoes and oysters, while the 
 paw of the fiend has consecrated pie to an unholy mis- 
 sion? Dyspepsia is but the buffeting of Satan, while 
 sirens that lure the young man to the shipwreck of his 
 soul do not in reality sing songs upon inviting shores, 
 but with white aprons on bring hot cakes wherewith to 
 entice him to his ruin. The Circean cup is for sale by 
 all druggists. . . . Sound, sensible cooking has a 
 great deal to do with the sublimest raptures of the soul." 
 
 In 1886 he suffered from a severe illness, the 
 effect of this long-continued strain, and at this 
 time made strong resolutions to reform: 
 
 "It all comes from overdoing — from my intemperate 
 life. I have to learn a hard lesson: to reform, to have 
 to live in a wise, not wasteful but useful, way after a 
 life of extravagance is not easy. Am I to be like an 
 old patched-up steam boiler that after all is worn out 
 
246 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 and good for nothing ? Heaven forbid ! Help me 
 with your prayers ! " 
 
 At this time a subscription was taken up among 
 his friends and a considerable sum sent to him to 
 use as a "health fund." His comments on this 
 gift are characteristic. To a friend, one of the 
 principal givers, he writes: 
 
 "Have just received — as a health fund — a trust 
 fund to turn into strength and work for the country 
 what is left of my somewhat weakened powers. I hope 
 to make it a good investment. I will try to work it 
 out and make my good friends feel that they have done 
 well, for you know there are other fellows better than 
 I putting in their best licks for God and humanity 
 who don't make half the fuss I do, who to do their work 
 have had to keep near to the paths of impecuniosity, 
 so to speak, and need looking after; for me to feast is 
 to go terribly back on them, for it would discourage the 
 good like you, who are on the lookout to see what lift 
 or help they can give in the world's scrimmage. Pray 
 for me that I be sensible and level-headed in this new 
 and blessed and yet trying experience." 
 
 Some time after the receipt of this "trust fund" 
 he rendered a formal account of the expenditure of 
 it for distribution to the unknown donors through 
 the chairman of the committee in charge of the 
 matter. The sum, which amounted to a few 
 thousand dollars, he had divided into three parts. 
 The first part, which amounted to about half of the 
 entire sum, he spent in putting up a small cottage, 
 
In the North, J870-J890 247 
 
 conveniently near, yet separated by a stretch of 
 water from his home at Hampton. He writes con- 
 cerning this item of expenditure: 
 
 "Bluff Cottage is a pretty, well-kept cottage across 
 Hampton Creek, beautifully situated upon the highest 
 point of the neighboring shore. There I spend a few 
 weeks in the late spring, and the teachers get delightful 
 rest and change, going in parties of six or seven to spend 
 Saturday and Sunday nights in the late winter and 
 spring. The sound of plashing waves and the fine 
 water view over there make it a complete break from 
 school routine." 
 
 The next statement concerns a small sum spent 
 in a trip to the South and the Bahama Islands. 
 Referring to this he writes: 
 
 "My southern trip has been ever since a great help 
 in discussing the Negro question. I had long wished 
 to study the blacks in the Gulf States and the English 
 treatm^ent of them at the West Indies. . . . Five 
 weeks in Dakota in August and September, visiting 
 six reservations and studying Indian life and conditions, 
 has given me vantage ground of the greatest value in 
 writing and speaking on the Indian question. I have 
 had almost constant use for the facts and impressions 
 gained on my southern and western trips." 
 
 The few hundred dollars that remained were used 
 partly as a gift to an associate and partly for a 
 Slimmer camping trip: 
 
 "Mr, has had much extra work on account of 
 
 my illness and needed the little trip. Camping out 
 
248 Samtiel Chapman Afmstfong 
 
 with my daughters at Asquam Lake, New Hampshire, 
 in July and August, was most pleasant and in every 
 way profitable. . . . Please excuse this egotistic 
 statement." 
 
 This use of money was characteristic. All per- 
 sonal funds were to him trust funds, to be put, 
 if absolutely necessary, into procuring a working 
 outfit of health, but if possible to be given directly 
 over to the pressing needs of his work, whose varied 
 claims could never be met by gifts, which were 
 usually for specified purposes alone. 
 
 Such was the pressure of his work, however, that 
 the excellent resolutions he formed when sick and 
 suffering modified but slightly his later course in 
 life. It was only at the houses of friends in the 
 North that he found such approach to rest as his 
 temperament allowed him. 
 
 Says one by whose hearth he felt most at home: 
 
 "He talked little of his work unless asked directly 
 about it. He caught up any topic that was touched 
 upon and tossed the ball of conversation most nimbly to 
 and fro. A delightful gaiety is my most general 
 recollection. There were serious moments when he 
 rose to very great heights of simplicity and insight. 
 . . . One felt the whole striving of the man 
 toward a goal he revered. 
 
 "But geniality, wit, humanity, all these showed in 
 his speech, and when he came in it was always 
 as if a wind of strength and healing blew. I 
 never saw him discouraged or downcast, even 
 when things seemed very doubtful. I remember his 
 
In the North. J870-J890 249 
 
 telling me once about a college mate he had just seen 
 who had grown suddenly very rich, and spreading his 
 hands he said, 'These are all there is between my 
 little girls and the world,' and then he threw back his 
 head and gave a most boyish laugh. 'And that's the 
 way I like it ! ' 
 
 "He was often brilliant, always delightful, even when 
 we knew he was tired and suffering. It was his wonder- 
 ful courage that never flagged that shines most in my 
 mem.ory. Whatever topic he touched on, one felt the 
 gallant heart. . , . He told delightful stories to 
 my children, and no one ever went away from him 
 without strength and fresh hope." 
 
 He often sought relief under pressure of care in 
 some outburst of nonsense. When a company was 
 gathered together to meet him socially, he some- 
 times offered to sing his famous Chinese song. 
 When all had expressed a desire to hear it, he 
 would procure a tin pan and fork for each and 
 tell every one to beat on the pan when he gave 
 the word. 
 
 He would then sit down in the center of the circle, 
 and with a perfectly solemn face sing gibberish 
 which sounded sufficiently like Chinese, declaring 
 it was a classical love song in that tongue. At 
 intervals he would call for the pans, and all would 
 solemnly beat their pans, producing dreadful dis- 
 cords; at last some one would burst out laughing 
 and a general laugh would ensue, which was what he 
 made the performance for. 
 
 He hated melancholy, long-faced gatherings; if 
 
250 Samoel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 he could include in his games staid, elderly per- 
 sons who were used to taking themselves seriously, 
 or, as he would say, "unused to standing on 
 their heads as jolly ministers should," he was more 
 than pleased. 
 
 He frequently attended the conference held at 
 Lake Mohonk in behalf of the Indians, and enjoyed 
 every moment of scrambling in the woods and 
 rowing on the lake. One who knew him there says: 
 "He used to say, 'Just a minute, till I have 
 disposed of these missionaries, and then we will go 
 out and flop.'" This process consisted of lying 
 near some running stream and watching the clouds 
 float by, interrupting his reverie often by some 
 funny incident or story. 
 
 At these Lake Mohonk conferences he would 
 many a time keep every one sitting near him in 
 fits of laughter with his running comments, and 
 then without a moment's warning would be on 
 his feet, speaking with all his usual ardor and 
 vehemence. 
 
 It is as impossible to reproduce the sparkle and 
 dash of his talk as it is to throw on the canvas the 
 living man, but bits from his private correspondence 
 may serve as suggestions of the quality of his 
 conversation. 
 
 These bits are usually found in no direct connec- 
 tion with what precedes or follows. They are, as 
 it were, flashed out as a result of some internal 
 process of attrition: 
 
In the North, 1870-^890 251 
 
 " The chief comfort in Hfe is babies. Institutions 
 are a grind, humanity a good deal of a bore; causes are 
 tiresome, and men of one idea are a weariness." 
 
 "What you spend on yourself you lose; what you 
 give you gain." 
 
 "Don't let Emerson with his glittering half-truths 
 trouble. He is almost a prophet, and as he says indeed, 
 'Love will change.' That is well, because it only rests 
 with us whether for the better or worse. There is always 
 an evil alternative to every bright possibility. , . ." 
 This is a world of cares ; let us rather say this — we 
 are immortal ; our present coil is on the whole a very com- 
 fortable one and is truly wonderfully made. We are 
 compelled to rub for a few years through a world in 
 which things are very much mixed up, and we should 
 make the best of it, and above all be good natured." 
 
 "When it comes to the scratch, I believe in the prayers 
 of the unorthodox — why are they not as effectual as 
 any? From the deep human heart to the Infinite 
 Heart there is a line along which will pass the real cry 
 and the sympathetic answer — a double flash from the 
 moral magnetism that fills the universe. Its conditions 
 are not found in theological belief, but in the spirit of 
 a little child. We can no more understand our human 
 brother than our Father in Heaven without bringing 
 faith — the evidence of things unseen — the subject of 
 things hoped for — to our aid." 
 
 "I attended Dr. S 's church and liked the old 
 
 gentleman's preaching, only he read off what he had to 
 say, and, in the mysterious way ministers usually have — 
 or, rather, the devil does it for them — he administered 
 a kind of opiate along with his stirring appeal which 
 enabled us to go away feeling pretty comfortable." 
 
 "The deep truth about all noble hfe is that it is 
 renewed every day. It commences from no date. It 
 
252 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 begins with the day, with the hour; it is constant renewal; 
 the passing moment is a crisis. There is little inertia 
 in the soul. The past has enough to do to help itself, 
 and we cannot make reserves of goodness; the need of 
 each day exhausts all the supply." 
 
 "True worship is a gentle, sensitive, shrinking emo- 
 tion that steals softly into hearts in quiet moments, 
 often in response to some beautiful scene ; sometimes it 
 comes to us from the faithful true ones near us. It seems 
 to shun the throng. There is a religious impression 
 often in a magnificent church, but it is not worship." 
 
 "All progress of strong hearts is by action and 
 reaction. Human life is too weak to be an incessant 
 eagle flight toward the Sun of Righteousness. Wings 
 will be sometimes folded because they are wings. The 
 pinions that endure in eternal flight are fitted to us by 
 Heaven's messengers that meet the ascending spirit. 
 The earthly struggle must be enduring — ^that is all. 
 There must be no surrender; we can't expect much of 
 victory here." 
 
 "I dislike public prayer very much, because one is 
 so self-conscious; it is a hard thing to rise up before 
 people and pray to God and not to them. I have been 
 greatly troubled in this way, and only take part in that 
 public exercise when it is plainly in the line of duty and 
 good sense. I don't mind the students here; I enjoy it 
 with them alone, but there are always some of the house- 
 hold present and that I hardly fancy. But this is all 
 a confession of weakness." 
 
 "The kingdom of heaven will, I think, come through 
 Christian sociology. Missionary work is founded on 
 it, but doesn't half recognize the fact." 
 
 "Experience has been called 'an arch through which 
 gleams the untraveled world'; it has been called 'stern 
 lights'; but I prefer to call it a slow fire over which 
 
In the Notth. J870-J890 253 
 
 mortals are gradually turned on the toasting-fork of 
 destiny." 
 
 '"There's no such word as fail.' It is very true. 
 Equally true that there is failure in all success, and the 
 converse is true." 
 
 "Politics and philanthropy are a grind; only when 
 one is really at the post of duty and knows it there is 
 a sensation of being lifted and lifting {et teneo et teneor) 
 which sometimes comes gradually over one. Detail is 
 grinding, the whole inspiring. God's kings and priests 
 must drudge in seedy clothes before they can wear the 
 purple." 
 
 "Barbarism is horrible in its reality, but picturesque 
 and beautiful in its ruin. In killing it there is danger 
 that we kill the man that has it and his interesting 
 accessories." 
 
 "Royalty is kept from reality and in respect to 
 genuine opportunities is singularly destitute. The 
 beggar is nearer to truth than the king." 
 
 "God gave men moral energies for moral ends as 
 other energies for other ends. You will gather where 
 you sow — you will raise sugar where you work for it. 
 You will raise up intelligence, morality and religion as 
 you shall work for that." 
 
 "The adversary of souls hasn't half a chance at one 
 on a bright winter's day. Conscience shoulders arms 
 and stands at ' attention. ' Hence New England virtue; 
 hence tropical looseness." 
 
 "To get at truth, divide a hyperbole by any number 
 greater than two. ... In animated narrative 
 divide facts by ten." 
 
 Naturally interested in educational topics, Arm- 
 strong had some radical theories in regard to educa- 
 tion as applied to his own and other people's children. 
 
454 Samael Chapman Armstfong 
 
 He regarded education in its broadest sense, and 
 always laid more stress on the influence of the 
 teacher and of the surroundings than on any method 
 or course of study. 
 
 "Education by atmosphere is the most real; its 
 results are eternal, for it makes character," and he 
 regarded character as the goal in all education. 
 "Development is more and more my idea of educa- 
 tion." He thought it right that each person should 
 follow his own bent, and felt that "it is mean for 
 parents to interfere with their children's growth 
 and progress" by claiming their society when their 
 development seemed to be better forwarded else- 
 where than at home. 
 
 As the Indian work at Hampton was sustained 
 financially by yearly Congressional grants, trips 
 to Washington to secure and insure these appropri- 
 ations and visits to the Lake Mohonk Indian Confer- 
 ence to keep himself informed concerning Indian 
 affairs thus became a part of General Armstrong's 
 yearly routine and brought him into greater 
 intimacy with national affairs. 
 
 Thus he came more and more into the public eye. 
 As the leading exponent of Negro education, as a 
 champion of the Indian, and as a successful industrial 
 educator, he was often invited to address clubs and 
 societies in eastern cities, attend public dinners, 
 or write articles for the press, so that during his 
 later years he had not only the carrying on of 
 Hampton and the effort of raising money to meet 
 
SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONC, 
 
In the Nofth. J870-J890 255 
 
 its needs, but the varied demands of many public 
 interests to complicate his life. 
 
 In the year 1887 the degree of LL.D. was conferred 
 upon him by his alma mater, Williams College, and 
 in 1889 by Harvard University. He felt these 
 honors deeply, yet received them in all humility 
 as tokens of the nation's kindness to those who were 
 doing its work. His response to a speech of intro- 
 duction at Harvard shows this impersonal habit of 
 mind. It was his work, not himself, that was ever 
 uppermost. He said: 
 
 "Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Alumni: 
 This is my first presence at a Harvard commence- 
 ment, and I can never forget the pleasure and the honor 
 of it. It is great. Those of us who receive these honors 
 have more pleasure in them for the sake of our mothers 
 and our friends than for ourselves, and I thank you 
 for them as well as myself. This scene is grand and 
 inspiring. You have nobly honored your soldier boys 
 in this hall. I think the next time the country calls 
 for them there will be one hundred per cent, of Harvard 
 students ready to go. Dealing with the so-called 
 despised races, I have found that there is an inspira- 
 tion in self-help ; that from the incessant daily strain of 
 brain and body in a combined system of labor and 
 schooling, such as would be impossible as a basis of 
 any northern educational work, there comes to these 
 people a manliness and moral force and vigor of thought 
 and action which command the respect of all. The 
 simply trained Negro boy or Indian boy of Hampton 
 may be worth as much as an accomplished Harvard 
 graduate, and he is as ready to die for his country and, 
 what is more difficult, to live for it." 
 
256 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 To General Armstrong's campaigns through the 
 North is due a large part of the present interest and 
 confidence in the possibilities of the Negro under 
 wise leadership. On these topics the public is now 
 informed to a far greater extent than formerly, and 
 the opinion that industrial training is the training 
 best adapted to these weaker races has become 
 general. Both his aims at the Hampton school and 
 his method of raising money at the North have been 
 many times duplicated, until few persons in the 
 North can question the fact that it pays, and that 
 it is a national duty to educate the Negro and 
 the Indian into worthy citizenship.) 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 The Negro and the South 
 
 General Armstrong's lifelong habit of pre- 
 serving a non-partizan attitude, of looking at both 
 sides of a question, stood him in good stead in his 
 relations to his sotithern neighbors and to the 
 complex problem^i of southern life. It enabled 
 him to regard them from the point of view of a 
 philosopher and not of a political opponent. The 
 following extracts are taken from letters written to 
 a society in Honolulu of w^hich he was a life mem- 
 ber. He often spoke of the similarity of the prob- 
 lems of southern American and of Hawaiian life, 
 each encompassed by a large population of dark- 
 skinned people. In 1889 he wrote: 
 
 "You get from the papers very little insight into the 
 South. They write for their market. The South is 
 more and more tolerant of free speech; tremendous 
 but quiet changes are going on, even in the heart of 
 Mississippi, where the splendid chances for stock rais- 
 ing are attracting Northerners. Cotton-growing there 
 is leaving the uplands for the Yazoo bottom and like 
 regions, whither the Negroes are flocking by thousands 
 and getting small farms, while Bermuda and orchard 
 and other grasses are found to flourish on the exhausted 
 old cotton fields. Grass makes beef, beef makes men; 
 
 257 
 
258 Samwel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 cotton is dethroned, grass is king; the crop is worth 
 three times as much as the cotton crop. When the 
 South raises its own meat — pork especially — and 
 ceases to buy it in the northwest, reconstruction will 
 be complete, for then the South can pay any price for 
 education." 
 
 "The Negroes of the South are capable of and do 
 many provoking things; but generally the fiery south- 
 em spirit acts so excessively that sympathy with the 
 provocation is lost in condemnation of its extreme 
 measures." 
 
 "The war was the saving of the South. Defeat and 
 ruin brought more material prosperity to the South 
 than to the North, and the future has untold advan- 
 tages in store. This is the true reconstruction. Edu- 
 cation is part of it, but capital and enterprise, which 
 make men work, are the greater part. The Negro and 
 poor white and, more than all, the old aristocrat are 
 being saved by hard work, which, next to the grace of 
 God, saves our souls. . . . Good sense and a love 
 of fair play are, I believe, the ruling instincts at the 
 South, but Southerners so dreadfully overdo the thing 
 in dealing with the Negro ! Where a mere show of 
 force would answer they shoot half a dozen blacks, the 
 whites usually not getting hurt. . . . The angry 
 race feeling that crops out here and there between the 
 races at the South is not the rule. But nearly 8,000,000 
 blacks among 12,000,000 unsympathetic whites will 
 have some trouble and to some extent must and will 
 be 'sat on' politically. Monkeying with power, 
 whether in Hawaii or in the Sunny South, will end by 
 the monkey losing a part or the whole of his tail." 
 
 In an address delivered at Williams College 
 Febniary, 1890, were these words: 
 
The Negro and the South 259 
 
 "There is a great deal of misunderstanding on the 
 part of the North regarding the South. The word 
 South means a very large territory. You speak of the 
 South as a whole as all bad ; but in eight of the southern 
 States it is admitted that there is no trouble, but they 
 are held responsible for the acts of the others. In the 
 other southern States there are occasional outrages, 
 which are due largely to the peculiar temperament of 
 the people; this the people of the North cannot under- 
 stand. They cannot understand the peculiar relations 
 of the Negroes to the whites. What would you do if 
 you had this great preponderance of Negroes among 
 you? You don't know. No one can know until it 
 has been tried. The Negro is a great political and 
 social element which has to be met by the South. It 
 is not his political standing that makes the trouble, 
 but his social standing." 
 
 In the years that elapsed between 1870 and 1890 
 a change came over many of his opinions concerning 
 reconstruction. It will be remembered that while 
 in the employ of the Freedmen's Bureau he heartily 
 endorsed that policy in general, as became a loyal 
 employee ; later he saw that reconstruction measures 
 had failed in certain radical ways, and characterized 
 them as "a bridge of wood over a river of fire." 
 
 Yet to the basal fact of the reconstruction scheme 
 he always gave unquestioning adherence. The 
 granting of the suffrage to the Negroes was the 
 starting-point of his work; since the Negro was a 
 voter, he must be a worthy voter; to make the 
 enfranchised colored man an honorable citizen was 
 the best work for his country that General Armstrong 
 
26o Samuel Chapman Atmstrong 
 
 knew how to do. Without this corner-stone, the 
 structures of education, thrift and morahty which 
 he was striving to rear rested on no assured basis; 
 but for the privilege of the suffrage the Negro 
 would be at the mercy of every unprincipled neigh- 
 bor. His own words — not the words of a party 
 man, for though voting with the Republican party 
 in general he was far from confining his sympathies 
 to the measures of that party — show his reasons for 
 this attitude. In a reply to an article by Senator 
 Wade Hampton, which argued that if a suffrage 
 with educational qualifications had been granted 
 when the question was first brought up it would 
 have acted as an incentive to the Negroes to 
 qualify themselves to vote, he wrote in i< 
 
 "How could they have qualified themselves, or who 
 would have qualified them? Would their former 
 miasters have hastened to put an independent vote into 
 their hands? What but the pressure of the very exi- 
 gency of general suffrage has created the general senti- 
 ment for education and built up the common-school 
 system in the South that is one of the marvels of the 
 last twenty years?" 
 
 In a public address delivered in 1887, in words 
 that perhaps express his opinions as clearly as any, 
 he said: 
 
 "After all, being a citizen and a voter has more than 
 anything else made the Negro a man. The recognition 
 of his manhood has done much to create it. Political 
 power is a two-edged sword which may cut both ways 
 
The Negfo and the South 261 
 
 and do as much harm as good. In the main, it has, I 
 beHeve, been the chief developing force in the progress 
 of the race. It is, however, probable that this would 
 not have been so had it not been for the support of a 
 surrounding white civilization which, though not always 
 kind, has prevented the evils which would have resulted 
 from an unrestricted black vote." 
 
 "The political experience of the Negro has been a 
 great education to him. In spite of his many blunders 
 and unintentional crimes against civilization, he is 
 to-day more of a man than he would have been had he 
 not been a voter. . . . Manhood is best brought 
 out by recognition of it. Citizenship, together with 
 the common school, is the great developing force in 
 this country. It compels attention to the danger 
 which it creates. There is nothing like faith in man 
 to bring out the manly qualities." 
 
 "Suffrage furnished him [the Negro] with a stimulus 
 which was terribly misused, but it has reacted and 
 given him a training which it was out of the power 
 of churches and schools to impart. The source of 
 American intelligence is not so much the pedagogue as 
 the system which gives each man a share in the conduct 
 of affairs, leading him to think, discuss and act, and 
 thus educating him quite as much by his failures as by 
 his successes. Responsibility is the best educator." 
 
 From an editorial written in 1878: 
 
 "Hereafter it will be seen that Negro suffrage was a 
 boon to the race, not so much for a defense, but as a 
 tremendous fact that compelled its education. There 
 is nothing to do but attempt its elevation in every 
 possible way. In their pinching poverty the southern 
 States have seized the question of Negro education 
 
262 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 with a vigor that is the outcome of danger. The ex- 
 slave would have sunk into practical serfdom not by 
 oppression, but by stagnation of his mind. We have 
 no reason to think that the South would have fitted 
 him to vote, but now it must be done, and it will be 
 done with an energy that is bom of emergency. To 
 universal suffrage in the South, more than to anything 
 else, is due the existence of the strong and growing 
 class of ex-slave-holders, who advocate free schools for 
 all. Reason may appear to be in favor of limited 
 suffrage; experience seems on the other side." 
 
 "The talk of disfranchisement is idle; it comes too 
 late; the Negro is not what he was twenty-five years 
 ago, and the next half-century will see great changes." 
 
 His yearly written observations of the progress 
 and condition of the Negro race form a series of 
 papers interesting both to the student of southern 
 affairs and to one who is concerned with Samuel 
 Armstrong's development, for here speaks the 
 mature mind through the practised pen; here he 
 indicates a method which he found to be adapted 
 to the treatment of such vexed questions as the 
 position of the Negro in the South, a method broad, 
 impartial and reasonable. These extracts touch 
 briefly on the social, moral, political, financial and 
 educational situation among the Negroes. In a 
 report to the trustees, written in 1886, he says: 
 
 "Party ties are loosening; personal interest and 
 influence are more and more decisive in political action. 
 Reasonably well assured that he is secure in the rights 
 he has so far attained, the colored man has, in most of 
 
The Negffo and the South 263 
 
 the southern States, no longer serious anxiety on elec- 
 tion days. I think that, on the whole, the Negroes 
 are less devoted than formerly to politics, which are 
 becoming the specialty of a few, and that our black pop- 
 ulation is forming itself into strata. The highest — ^that 
 is, the best third or fourth — are progressing, gaining 
 rapidly in education, property and character, while 
 the lowest third or fourth are stationary in miserable 
 conditions, or, worse still, are slowly sinking into lower 
 depths. There is a large, well-behaved middle class 
 who take life easily and work when they must; they 
 are laborers and producers, and add much to the wealth 
 of the country, but lack ambition, are careless of the 
 future, and must be moved by forces from without 
 rather than from within. The hope for them lies in the 
 good management of landholders and employers of 
 every kind and in the lifting influences of a practical 
 Christian education. 
 
 "The earnest, capable schoolteacher can, both 
 directly and through his pupils, instruct them in 
 and inspire them to better things. The graduates 
 of Hampton and other institutions during the last 
 sixteen years have proved this. The black race is 
 strikingly responsive to the influences about it. Its 
 condition in the South corresponds to that of the 
 surrounding whites; it shares in their prosperity or 
 adversity, and has kept pace pretty well with the 
 stronger race in the growth of 'the New South.' 
 
 "The Negroes just now need light more than rights. 
 In their darkness they are, especially in the South, 
 suffering untold evils from the credit or contract system, 
 through which, partly by their own fault and partly 
 from the advantage taken of them, tens and hundreds 
 of thousands of them are kept in fixed and hopeless 
 poverty, harder to bear than their former bondage. 
 
264 Samoel Chapman Atmsttong; 
 
 Dismayed, they blindly seek some change, and their 
 restless movements from point to point result now 
 and then in an 'exodus,' where there is always the 
 possibility of some new development. Imposed upon 
 by others, helpless under their own appetites and pas- 
 sions, they appeal to our sympathies more than do 
 those who are literally blind, for we must never forget 
 that they are in no sense responsible for their own 
 ignorance. 
 
 "The recent temperance agitation under ' local 
 option' laws passed by various southern States, Georgia 
 leading, is a most hopeful sign. Experience has proven 
 the success of prohibition in country regions, and the 
 southern population is largely in the country. While 
 not hard drinkers, the blacks very generally drink, and 
 keep themselves poor by the yearly consumption of 
 the value of thousands of farms and homes. To-day 
 they need emancipation from whisky as much as 
 twenty years ago they needed it from their task-masters, 
 but I count upon prohibition only as one weapon among 
 many which should be used in fighting this battle. It 
 is not political pressure, but moral inspiration, which 
 will gain the day, and it is only as the former is 
 used as a means to an end that I can give it my 
 hearty support." 
 
 And in 1889: 
 
 "As might be expected, the popular talk about the 
 Negro is all in a hopeless key; but to the direct ques- 
 tions, 'Are the laborer's pigs and poultry and crops safer 
 than ten years ago? Are the loafer and thief more 
 likely to get their due? Are the Negroes inclined to 
 get homesteads?' the answer is usually 'Yes.' 
 
 "There are unquestionably multitudes of 'low- 
 
The Negro and the South 265 
 
 down' Negroes and many wretched neighborhoods, 
 but I think that intelHgent white men everywhere in 
 the South admit that the hne between the good and 
 the bad is every year more distinctly drawn — a sure 
 proof of progress. The gain was never so rapid as now, 
 thanks to Negro pluck and purpose and to the stern 
 discipline of their past, which developed qualities 
 beyond the power of schools alone to create; and this 
 basis of hope is, I believe, beyond the reach of any 
 political pressure. Increasing enterprise at the South 
 and the new industrial life of the people are helpful 
 conditions, and where they are supplemented by educa- 
 tion are pushing the better part of the Negro race into 
 prosperity, giving them a place and making them a 
 power. 
 
 "As prosperity creates social distinctions, political 
 divisions will follow, and the human nature of both 
 races may be trusted to adjust the relations which are 
 indeed to-day generally amicable. In those localities 
 where lawlessness and injustice have repelled capital 
 and immigration, the penalty of impoverishment is 
 the swift result and Government can do little; the 
 people must finish the work of reconstruction. 
 
 "I believe there is no such illustration on record of 
 the law of compensation as is to be found in the history 
 of the Negro race. More has been given them than 
 has been taken away. Hard knocks have driven them 
 forward. 'Development under difficulties ' seems to 
 be their law of progress, and this is their heroic age. 
 Indulgence has demoralized the Indian, while harsh- 
 ness has strengthened the Negro; our black boys could 
 not afford to have their path made too easy. As I look 
 at the life of the average white college student, I know 
 that our young men could not stand the ordeal of so 
 much prosperity, any more than the former could endure 
 
2 66 Samuel Chapman Armsttong 
 
 the strain which develops our Hampton boys. The 
 Negro's 'speed,' so to speak, is more rapid than that 
 of the white student, becaues he still feels the momen- 
 tum always associated with the first period of growth; 
 but this, rightly measured, is in no sense deceptive. 
 There is no doubt that against the Negro can be arrayed 
 a formidable phalanx of discouraging facts, but the 
 weight of evidence is finally in his favor, and we have 
 a right to our enthusiasm. Without it, indeed, we 
 should poorly serve the cause for which we stand, for 
 nothing so cripples a worker as a burden of grievances, 
 and our strength is in our belief that the providential 
 guidance of the Negro is as manifest to-day as it 
 ever was," 
 
 General Armstrong gained his impressions of the 
 South and the Negroes both from conversation and 
 contact with many hundred young colored people 
 at the Hampton school and from trips taken 
 through the South for the purpose of informing him- 
 self concerning the real condition of their people. 
 While on these tours he traveled incognito, as it 
 were ; for no one would suspect the northern philan- 
 thropist in the soldierly, keen-eyed man, dressed 
 in a rather baggy gray suit and black slouched hat. 
 Indeed, his type of face resembled rather that of the 
 Englishman of action, so that unsuspected he was 
 able to converse freely with men of all sorts every- 
 where, interrogating with equal interest the station 
 loafer — while the train made the leisurely halts 
 peculiar to southern railways — or the more culti- 
 vated travelers within the coaches. 
 
The Negto and the Sooth 267 
 
 The following extracts from letters written to his 
 school paper describe impressions of South Carolina 
 in 1887; they show in some detail his method of 
 obtaining information about the South, and present 
 pictures of contrasting sides of southern life, now 
 overhimg by a threatening cloud of political con- 
 fusion, now lightened by increasing thrift and 
 prosperity: 
 
 "Columbia, South Carolina, January, 1887. 
 
 "Through the kindness of ex-Governor Thompson, 
 of this State, I had the most pleasant access to his 
 genial successor. Governor Richardson, whose appre- 
 ciation of the importance of the Negro question is deep ; 
 only thinking, responsible men in situations like his 
 can so realize it, and he gave much time to its discus- 
 sion. . . . 
 
 "In the entire State there is a black majority of 
 about 50,000. It is a postulate of politics that this 
 majority shall not rule the State. Its record of corrupt, 
 extravagant, high-handed control for eight years was 
 far worse for the State than the period of the war, which 
 destroyed the people's prosperity but did not hurt 
 their manhood. The general demoralization during 
 the rule of the blacks was unspeakably bad ; civilization 
 could hardly stand up before it. The Negroes were 
 not to blame when the expenses of one session of the 
 Legislature amounted to $1,100,000 — the worst year 
 of all (the Legislature now just closed, after a thirty- 
 day session, cost but $53,000); they were led into mis- 
 chief by unscrupulous white men. 
 
 "A better feeling between the races is setting in. 
 The Governor's plantations are in the black country, 
 where there is security for all. Negroes are tried by 
 
2 68 Samuel Chapman Armstrong; 
 
 jurors of their own race, but frequently prefer white 
 ones. A black man's poverty never prevents his having 
 able counsel in criminal cases. Some years ago dread 
 of the incendiary was a widespread terror. Now the 
 whites feel secure in the densest black surroundings. 
 Nearly every Negro is a church member and has no 
 opinion at all of the white man's religion, but morally 
 he is very weak and needs more than anything else 
 improvement at this point. This is the problem of his 
 education. How shall it be accomplished? 
 
 "My knowledge of things having been gained so far 
 from Democratic sources, I found (in Charleston) a 
 Negro Republican who is held in high estimation in the 
 community and seemed a clear-headed, reliable man. 
 He said that there are colored policemen in the com- 
 munity as high as the grade of lieutenant; that one- 
 third of the paid fire department of the city is colored ; 
 that colored people on steamboats and railroads in 
 this State have first-class seats when they pay the 
 price. I noticed myself that a tidy, respectable class 
 of colored people ride in the 'ladies' car,' and that only 
 rough-looking ones were in the smoking car. The 
 truth is that the entire Republican legislation on the 
 civil rights of the blacks remains unaltered; much of it, 
 however, is a dead letter. My informant said that 
 the Negro vote is practically abolished, and at the last 
 election only half the whites voted. . . . He him- 
 self used to believe in universal suffrage, but did so no 
 longer, from his experience of the ruinous taxation 
 under Republican rule which made some colored men 
 of property favor the election of Governor Hampton, 
 of which he was glad. His taxes have been reduced 
 from $77 to $22 a year. ... He was not satisfied 
 with the condition of the black voter, but ' what could 
 
The Negfo and the South 269 
 
 be done ? ' He thought the whites could, if they tried, 
 divide the Negro vote. 
 
 "I think the Negroes of South CaroHna will not suffer 
 much from not voting — perhaps on the whole they are 
 improving — and that they are unspeakably better off 
 than when in power, but that, however, the principles 
 of popular government in the State are in peril, and 
 that real democracy may be going to destruction. 
 An undue Congressional and electoral power is gained. 
 Tampering with men's right to vote is most dangerous. 
 Many who see nothing else to do speak of it with the 
 deepest concern. I had no idea that this sentiment 
 existed. All seems quite well now, but thinking men 
 are thinking. They see that there is a black cloud over 
 the future, and nowhere else is this better appreciated. 
 . . . There appears to be a general feeling that 
 an unimpeded Negro majority could repeat the terrible 
 work of former years. . . . Men talk earnestly 
 but not bitterly about it, with most kind and friendly 
 feeling toward the blacks. The true thing for us to 
 do fis to put ourselves in their places. What would 
 we do if there? Only a Pharisee could be boastful. 
 The only hope ^for the future is a vigorous effort to 
 elevate the colored race. The only way out of it all 
 is by admitting every thoughtful man to education — 
 practical education that shall fit them for life. To let 
 things go on indefinitely as they are will, I believe, in 
 the end prove as disastrous to local civilization as was 
 the reign of ignorance; for by a longer, slower way 
 it will at last lead to anarchy. 
 
 "Beaufort, South Carolina, is the region where the 
 finest cotton in the world is grown; is the center of Negro 
 politics in this State and one of the strongholds of the 
 black man in the South. This place. Port Royal 
 Island, and the other sea islands along the coast, are 
 
ijo Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 owned chiefly by Negroes, who outnumber the whites 
 about ten to one, and who, through aid of the tax sales 
 of the war period, were enabled to buy small farms of 
 from ten to twenty acres at a very low rate. They are 
 steadily buying more. The great majority live in their 
 own homes. There is, I think, no Negro population in 
 this country just so situated. There are many similarly 
 located on the mainland close by, making a domain 
 of blacks which in an interesting way illustrates a phase 
 of the problem of this race. . . . 
 
 "Showing me a very strong statement from a reporter 
 of a northern paper about the stealing done by colored 
 employees, a member of the firm of J. J, Dale & Com- 
 pany, who do the largest business in the sea islands 
 in ginning cotton, said that fifteen years' experience in 
 buying cotton from the Negroes had taught the firm 
 that not over five per cent, of them would cheat by 
 adding water, salt or sand or overweighing the cotton 
 in any way, and but one in twenty cheats in business 
 dealings. With loo women employees in the gin-house, 
 and constant opportunity to steal cotton, there is not 
 two per cent, loss of stock. Dale & Company have 
 eight large stores on these islands, have no one especially 
 to watch their goods, and have had little loss. 
 
 ' ' Tax and crown land can be bought to an unlimited 
 extent for $1.25 per acre on which the Negroes can dig 
 out a living. ... I saw six considerable stores in three 
 blocks of the principal street kept by Negroes. They 
 have worked into the business life of the place and fill 
 quite a number of important offices of trust and honor 
 — and nobody is hurt. The whites as a class are far 
 ahead, but the Negro movement — or tendency — is a 
 healthy and encouraging one. There was more neat' 
 ness than I had expected to find in the many little homes 
 I looked into; the floors were universally clean; the 
 
The Negto and the Sottth 271 
 
 buildings were often mere shells. Many have complained 
 of these people's labor. I had a two hours' drive with 
 Mr. Johnson, a white man, a pineapple planter, etc., 
 who has had great experience through a long life with 
 this labor and was well satisfied with it. He knew 
 what was reasonable to expect, what allowance to make, 
 and did a very large and successful business. As every- 
 where else, the unsuccessful man must have his scape- 
 goat, and it is very convenient to blame the black man. 
 
 "There is a large Negro population in this State with 
 little or no political organization. There is no agitation 
 and little voting on their part; there is peace; the lamb 
 lies down beside the lion. A leading educator of the 
 Negro race told me in the presence of a prominent 
 Democrat that the three blackest parishes or counties 
 of Louisiana, wholly officer^ed and controlled by Negroes 
 elected by the people, are among the best governed 
 and most orderly in the State. Here is evidence that 
 Negro majorities in exercise of their right to vote do 
 not always make for unrighteousness. The Southerner 
 admitted the statement, but said that the whites there 
 have the wealth and give bonds for the colored officers, 
 refusing to back up any in whom they have no confi- 
 dence, and this keeps out bad men. This was admitted. 
 It was refreshing to find that the races could live 
 together so well." 
 
 General Armstrong's belief that the country, 
 since it had taken from the Negro his former means 
 of support, owed him a chance to make his way, 
 caused him to give his warm support for many years 
 to the principle of national aid to Negro education. 
 But before the year 1887 his feeling on this point 
 underwent some modification, owing to the effective 
 
272 Samuel Chapman Armsttong 
 
 way in which the southern States, headed by 
 Virginia, were taking up the pubHc-school education 
 of their own black children, and owing also to a 
 growing conviction that any aid granted by the 
 National Government would be poorly administered 
 by the politicians through whose hands it must 
 inevitably pass. 
 
 He wrote concerning national aid to Negro 
 education, and especially of the Blair bill, as 
 follows : 
 
 "The nation which freed and enfranchised 4,000,000 
 slaves, thereby creating most serious and dangerous 
 political conditions, has felt its responsibility, and 
 has from time to time attempted to do something 
 toward cultivating the intelligence and moral sense of 
 its new-made citizens. The Blair bill is the last 
 expression of this feeling and has failed. 
 
 "Unquestionably a better measure might have been 
 prepared. Too much was asked for in too short a 
 time, and this mistake gave some justification to the 
 cry of 'pauperizing the South.' The $15,000,000 
 given by northern charity for southern, chiefly Negro, 
 education has had a tremendous mental and moral 
 result. The $3,500,000 of Government money used 
 by the educational department of the Freedmen's 
 Bureau between 1865 and 1870 was the means of teach- 
 ing nearly 1,000,000 black children to read and write. 
 It did broad foundation work for the institutions which 
 were to follow it. In my opinion, wise and legitimate 
 means can be found for using national aid against that 
 worst enemy of republics, an ignorant population. 
 The need of it for the enormous mass of illiterate blacks 
 
The Negfo and the South 273 
 
 and whites is unquestionable; there is danger in neglect 
 of them, and we who know what the trouble of the past 
 has been see the trouble ahead and feel that the worst 
 is yet to come." 
 
 As the foregoing quotation shows, a wise measure, 
 avoiding what he thought to be the errors of this 
 bill, but directed to the same end, would have 
 foimd a supporter in him. The agricultural colleges 
 suggested by Senator Morrill approached nearer to 
 his idea of what such a measure should be than 
 any other. These, he thought, might become the 
 starting-point for a larger development of the in- 
 dustrial idea for Negroes under State or national 
 auspices : 
 
 "Senator Morrill's agricultural colleges have done 
 more for the Negroes in the South than all the New 
 England Senators and Congressmen combined ever did 
 by legislation. 
 
 "His agricultural college measures have been the 
 best ever passed for our ex-slaves, for they make some 
 provision for the practical education needed by the 
 Negro that should fit him to earn a good living and get 
 a home of his own. Able to do this, his vote is sure to 
 be counted. United States troops are not needed to 
 guard his approach to the ballot-box; but there is 
 greatly needed a thorough system of agricultural 
 schools, costing much less than armed men, among the 
 southern blacks and some classes of whites. The 
 entire country approves public expenditures made for 
 agricultural colleges. Party men North and South 
 write in support of it. Why not establish under the 
 Department of Agriculture at Washington a system of 
 
274 Samwel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 industrial schools that shall reach every Congressional 
 district in the South?" 
 
 All his experience and the continued observation 
 of years only led him closer to his fundamental and 
 first idea — namely, that the great need of the 
 Negroes was character, expressed in thrift, industry 
 and moral living, and that the only way to supply 
 this need was found in a system of industrial com- 
 bined with mental education. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Work for the Indian 
 
 "The Negro makes public sentiment, but public 
 sentiment makes the Indian. . . . The elevation 
 of the Indians is clearly possible and is dependent on 
 the will of the people; their failure will be more the 
 white man's failure than their own." 
 
 General Armstrong took every' opportunity to 
 urge upon the people of the country, by public 
 address, by magazine or newspaper articles, or by 
 personal conversation, this view of the Indian 
 question. He threw the force of his personality 
 and influence into the work of convicting the 
 conscience of the nation of criminal negligence 
 toward the red men. The remedy for their troubles 
 lay, he thought, in enlisting in their behalf a large 
 and influential body of friends who would zealously 
 guard their interests, enforce wise legislation, 
 expose underhanded Congressional action, and 
 contribute money where it was needed for their 
 education or improvem.ent. 
 
 "Will the red men finally have a constituency of 
 faithful friends, like that of the blacks, who will steadily 
 support the educational work for them?" he asks. 
 "The Government is as good as the people will let it be; 
 
 275 
 
276 Samoel Chapman Atmstrong 
 
 to scold about the Indian policy is idle and useless. 
 There is need of combined effort that shall press upon 
 our legislators their duty to the red race, and persistently 
 work for them at their own homes." 
 
 General Armstrong was able to bring this view 
 into wider proniinence than heretofore. His dramatic 
 instinct that seized upon striking facts for relation, 
 his readiness with a practical solution of immediate 
 difficulties, his burning eagerness to help the unfor- 
 tunate, and the wide circle of friends already inter- 
 ested in his work made him a most valuable acquisi- 
 tion to the ranks of the friends of the Indian, 
 
 It will be remembered that a few of that race had 
 come to the Hampton school in 1878, sent from 
 barracks in St. Augustine, Florida, where they were 
 held as prisoners of war. Since that time the 
 Government had granted a fixed sum yearly for the 
 support of a limited number, and a group of Indians 
 numbering about 150 had become a part of the 
 Hampton school. 
 
 That institution was peculiarly adapted to the 
 training of Indians, owing to the fact that English 
 was the language of instruction and conversa- 
 tion, and also in no small measure to the steady 
 tone created by 500 hard-working and loyal 
 Negro students. "Sending Indians to a Negro 
 school is like putting raw recruits into an old 
 regiment," said General Armstrong. The moral 
 atmosphere at Hampton, too, he felt to be essential 
 to Indian development. "Their education should 
 
Woffc for the Indian 277 
 
 be first for the heart, then for health, and last for 
 the mind," he said. That an individual Indian 
 s"hould be civilized was barely, from his point of 
 view, worth the expenditure of money and energy 
 bestowed on it at Hampton; but that each Indian 
 should feel under obligation to pass on to his people 
 the benefits he had received was a result worthy 
 of the best effort. Hampton could create the 
 desire for service, the sense of moral obligation in 
 the Negro, and why not, he thought, in the Indian ? 
 
 "Pupils should be taught that they have a duty to 
 their people, that education is more than a preparation 
 for their own support and decent living, but that they 
 have a great work which they must begin by writing 
 home; they must expect to teach by precept and 
 example, the more excellent way." 
 
 "The Indians are grown-up children," said he. "We 
 are a thousand years ahead of them in the line of 
 development. Education is not progress, but is a 
 means of it. A brain full of book knowledge, whose 
 physical basis is the product of centuries of barbarism, 
 is an absurdity that we do not half realize, from our 
 excessive traditional reverence for school and college 
 training. We forget that knowledge is not power 
 unless it is digested and assimilated. Savages have 
 good memories; they acquire, but do not comprehend; 
 they devour, but do not digest knowledge. They have 
 no conception of mental discipline. A well-balanced 
 mind is attained only after centuries of development."* 
 
 "The very atmosphere of civilization is a revelation 
 to them. Respectability here is in the air; it is a habit; 
 
 * " Indian Education in the East." A speech deUvered in 1S80. 
 
278 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 you inherit it; it is the fashion and it pays. Among 
 savages, degradation is in the air and in the blood ; it is 
 customary and comfortable, almost universal, and virtue 
 is a cross instead of a crown. The civilized man is 
 honest not because he is good, but because it pays to be 
 honest; but it took ten generations to find it out. Not 
 till a race compiehends the practical bearing of integrity 
 will it practise it. Knowing it is not comprehending it." 
 
 He often compared the two races as they mingled 
 in the school life of Hampton : 
 
 "The severe discipline of slavery strengthened a 
 weak race. Professed friendship for a strong one has 
 weakened it. A cruel semblance of justice has done 
 more harm than direct oppression could have done. 
 The Negro is strong, the Indian weak, because the one 
 is trained to labor and the other is not. I am told that 
 the ex-slaves of the Indian Territory are now much 
 more prosperous than their former red-skinned owners. 
 One has had too little and the other too much freedom. 
 Both are now eager to improve; both will make the 
 most of their opportunities for practical education. 
 Both have capacity to become citizens and perform all 
 practical duties. With both the question of progress 
 is only one of opportunities to provide and then settle 
 the question." 
 
 "The surroundings of the ex-slave are far more 
 sympathetic and helpful than those of our western 
 wards, whose large possessions and resultant relations 
 to the neighboring country have created many compli- 
 cated questions. The war, with its terrible possibilities, 
 has resulted in peace and good-will among all our people, 
 while a hundred years of well-meaning policy toward 
 
Work for the Indian 279 
 
 the Indians have just brought us to a measure which 
 recognizes their manhood." * 
 
 " Civihzing Indians and Negroes together is novel, but 
 hopeful, and it keeps us busy ; it is very stimulating, for 
 success is not to be taken for granted. We shall see." f 
 
 He never perceived that it was more the influence 
 of his own personality than any other force at 
 Hampton that tended to make responsible beings 
 out of those Indian boys and girls just raising them- 
 selves from barbarism. He commanded their admi- 
 ration where they would have passed by with scant 
 notice many men equally well intentioned and able. 
 They could understand the language of flashing eye 
 and quick gesture, as they remained at Hampton. 
 They could soon understand also the simple questions 
 which he put to his audiences, and it was as often, 
 in proportion, that an Indian answered them as a 
 Negro. They enjoyed mightily the scenery, the 
 soft blue waters, and the passing boats; the songs 
 of the Negroes with their passionate rhythms and 
 martial choruses stirred them to the quick. General 
 Armstrong planned wisely when he admitted them 
 to the heart of his work; it was heart more than 
 intellectual cultivation that they needed, and 
 Hampton was essentially for many years an expres- 
 sion in brick and mortar, in flesh and blood, of 
 General Armstrong's own inner self. 
 
 While at Hampton they gained a general knowl- 
 
 * " Indian Education in the East." 
 
 t Address, " The Future of the American Negro," deKvered at 
 Omaha, 1887. 
 
28o Samtiel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 edge of several trades, and most of them acquired a 
 mastery of one. Their work at school was planned 
 in such a way as to fit them to repair their own 
 homes, to build their own carts and tools, or to 
 engage in some occupation for self-support. General 
 Armstrong thought that this manual work, which was 
 carried on under instruction and was obligatory on 
 every Indian boy, even more essential to them than 
 to the Negroes. Owing to their inherited nomadic 
 instincts a distaste for labor was common among 
 them, but in the changed conditions prevailing at 
 their western homes they must now either go to 
 work or go to the wall; and half recognizing this 
 alternative, they received their enforced industrial 
 education with composure. 
 
 The test of work for the Indians General Arm- 
 strong felt to be not what they received at school, 
 but their record on their return home. As he said : 
 
 "The question is no longer, Can the Indian be civi- 
 lised? but, What becomes of the civilized Indian? The 
 Indians are where they are; a few may be taken away, 
 educated, and Hve among the whites, but only a few; this 
 will barely touch, but not settle the Indian question. 
 The work to be done is yet at the reservation." 
 
 It has long been the policy of the Government to 
 group Indians within defined tracts known as 
 "reservations," each of which is presided over by 
 an agent appointed by the President. Each agency 
 contains one or more schools which provide for the 
 
Wotk for the Indian 
 
 2»I 
 
 education of Indian children, and a depot of supplies 
 from which each adult can draw a certain ration, 
 including both necessities and luxuries, free of 
 charge. Since the year 1887 this policy has been 
 supplemented by the provisions of the Dawes Land 
 in Severalty bill.* 
 
 General Armstrong took many trips among the 
 reservations in order to ascertain with his own eyes 
 what were the conditions in the midst of which his 
 returned pupils were to live. He found much in 
 western life that differed from the current western 
 and eastern opinion of it, saying: 
 
 "If the West knows anything, it knows that you 
 can't improve the prairie Indian. Crossing the conti- 
 nent twice of late, I found the universal creed to be, 
 'There is no good Indian but a dead one,' which has 
 been adopted by over half the intelligent people of 
 the East." f 
 
 These tours were taken in the company of friends 
 or of some chance traveling companion; and in 
 riding or driving over the prairies from one reserva- 
 tion to another, often camping at night, he found 
 pleasant reminiscences of army life and gained 
 fresh strength. Of one of these tours, half for rest 
 and pleasure, half for purposes of observation, 
 he writes: 
 
 * The Dawes Land in Severalty bill provided that any Indian 
 expressing a wish to take up land in individual ownership should 
 have 160 acres apportioned to him from the reservation for his 
 own private use, inalienable for twenty-five years. By taking 
 up this land he became a citizen of the United States. 
 
 t " Indian Education in the East." 
 
282 Samuel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 "The weather has been cool and our gallops over the 
 plains in the midst of surrounding mountains have been 
 exhilarating. Such appetites as we have had ! The 
 memory of feasts of brook trout, black-tailed deer, 
 wild duck, ending with flapjacks and maple syrup, 
 will not soon fade. The hunter of our party is the 
 Harvard graduate. Our ex-Confederate captain has 
 a genius for making tea — the charm of such life makes 
 every camp seem the pleasantest of all. Whenever we 
 gather around the blazing fire near some river or on the 
 edge of the woods and the sun is setting in glory and the 
 plain stretches far away till it meets a distant mountain, 
 we think we have never found it so pleasant before." 
 
 And of one especial trip: 
 
 "A three hours' drive over this [Devil's Lake] reser- 
 vation was one of my most encouraging and inspiring 
 experiences of Indian life and progress. In every direc- 
 tion as far as the eye could reach, except where the 
 ground was broken and wooded, were dotted log houses, 
 beside each one a tipi, or conical tent, of smoke-browned 
 cotton cloth, graceful and picturesque, where in sum- 
 mer the Indians cook and sometimes live. Of the 
 1,000 people 210 are farmers, heads of families, scattered 
 over the reserve just as white men would be settled, 
 cultivating from 100 to 200 acres apiece. 
 
 "The climax of my experience was in seeing a 
 McCormick self-binder and reaper driven with two 
 horses by an Indian farmer around splendid fields of 
 yellow grain. All I could say was : ' This is the end of 
 it.' True, the red man does not put in his full day's 
 work like the white man, and does not hesitate to take 
 a good long midday rest; but then, he is on his own 
 reaping-machine, harvesting the fruits of his own labor, 
 
Woffc for the Indian 283 
 
 which he takes to the agency mill to be ground and 
 brings back in flour. 
 
 "I can never forget this afternoon's drive among 
 the Indian farms. The air was perfect, every breath 
 a delight; far and near fields of grain were waving in 
 the wind, while the slant rays of the setting stm made 
 their surfaces glisten like jewels as they rose and fell 
 under the soft touch of the breeze. The redeemed, 
 disenthralled and regenerate Indian, guiding the compli- 
 cated, brainy machine — one of forty on the reservation, 
 each as a rule bought by two or three men together — 
 seemed fairly established in manhood. The hard 
 work is done. . . ." 
 
 He saw all sides of life among the Indians, and 
 appreciated the strength as well as the weakness 
 of their surviving savage customs. From Standing 
 Rock Agency, Dakota, he wrote: 
 
 "The picturesqueness of Indian life was at its climax 
 when we went to see a modified ' grass dance ' (all others 
 being suppressed), now allowed once in two weeks in 
 the afternoon. An outer circle some hundred feet in 
 diameter was formed of onlookers of both sexes, within 
 which sat on their heels about eighty braves in full ball 
 costume ready to spring to the center at the sound of 
 the drum and chorus of men and squaws whose quaint 
 barbaric cadences, alternating with stirring staccato 
 cries, in perfect time, seemed to inspire the dancers as 
 much as any orchestra could the civilized votaries of 
 this pleasure. . . . All chant or sing or shout, 
 while strings of innumerable small bells on arm and 
 leg and body make a tremendous tinkling as the dancers 
 go madly round, now erect, now in a bending posture, 
 
284 Samwel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 iraitating the various attitudes of the hunter or warrior. 
 After about five minutes of these wild doings, all fall 
 back to their places and squat for a while. The leader 
 rises and explains something or recites the exploits or 
 generosity of somebody, and they all go at it again. 
 A fire was lighted, and the performance of the curiously 
 costumed, painted, plumed, richly feathered, splendidly 
 built half savages was weird and brilliant as they 
 pranced around it. I cannot see that the severest 
 criticism of moralists and satirists on civilized ball- 
 rooms would apply here. The dance was out of doors, 
 and the whole scene as the sun went down — the infinite 
 prairie beyond, the gumbo hills in one direction, the 
 Missouri River winding away to the left, the glory of 
 color • in the west, the strained, intense and brilliant 
 action before us — made it all seem like another world. 
 Unpicturesque civilization will conquer all this. One's 
 mystic instincts are singularly awakened in the remote 
 West. Nature and her spirit are felt here as nowhere 
 else." 
 
 His mature observations of the system of caring 
 for Indians adopted by the Government led him to 
 certain fixed conclusions, both as to the evils and 
 the benefits of the system and as to the means by 
 which it could be improved. He regarded the 
 system of distributing rations to the Indians which 
 was in vogue between 1880 and 1890 as thoroughly 
 wrong. Many Indians, he saw, were obliged to 
 travel long distances, leaving their work at home 
 in order to reach the distributing stations. When 
 arrived at the agency they met a number of other 
 idle braves, awaiting their turn, so that the agency 
 
Wotk for the Indian 285 
 
 became a breeding-place for vice and gossip. Now 
 that the buffalo and the salmon, the natural food 
 supply of the wild tribes, were gone, some aid must 
 be given to the Indian, but he thought that it 
 should be in the form of farm tools, or, if rations 
 must be allowed at all, that they should be given 
 as a reward of merit. 
 
 Here lay the fundamental economic error of the 
 Government policy — that the alternative of work 
 or starvation, which spurs on the white man to 
 effort, does not exist for the Indian. 
 
 "This endowment of food and land without work is 
 like a millstone around his neck," he said. 
 
 "The thousand Sioux at Devil's Lake Agency, 
 Dakota, have in three years been all brought near to 
 the point of self-support, because (by a special provision) 
 they were fed and helped only as they worked. The 
 rest of the Sioux are worse off than ever, for the lazy 
 and intractable among them fare as well as any, and it 
 would be better to destroy than to emasculate them. 
 
 "The treaties that provide food, etc., for Indians 
 state most emphatically that education and ultimate 
 self-support are their end. But this result is put farther 
 off than ever. ... It would be right, I believe, to 
 deny to lazy, intractable Indians at least sugar, coffee 
 and tobacco — the luxuries, letting them have beef, 
 flour, etc., until they should do better. Remarkable 
 results, which I have personally witnessed, were wrought 
 among the Shoshone Indians in this way. Looking 
 at this great pauperizing system, which has no parallel 
 in our time, which would make a mob of the poor of 
 our cities and is ruinous to the red man, I believe that 
 
2 86 Samuel Chapman Armstrong 
 
 any revolution in our Indian management is desirable 
 that would change it to a generous, fair help of the 
 Indians, . . . putting wise pressure on the idle 
 and thriftless." 
 
 He believed that the reservation system contained 
 the germ of the wisest care of the Indians possible 
 under the then existing conditions. 
 
 " I am convinced of the truth," he said, "that reserva- 
 tions under good management afford the best conditions 
 to prepare the red race for citizenship — develop, not 
 destroy them." 
 
 To find the desired good management for the 
 reservations General Armstrong thought the most 
 difficult task for the reformer. He advocated 
 strongly the appointment of army officers to the 
 post of Indian agents: 
 
 "Civilian agents (excepting a few too valuable ever 
 to lose to the cause) are a failure, with which the par- 
 simony of Congress in giving meager salaries has had 
 much to do. A plan should be devised which shall 
 give to competent men the details of the difficult, 
 delicate task of Indian civilization, never to be accom- 
 plished while a legislative body attempts executive 
 work. The most natural and simple way is to make 
 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs an independent, 
 responsible officer at the head of a department, with 
 ample discretion; and to create an educational bureau, 
 with a strong man at its head. The present super- 
 intendent of Indian education barely appears as a 
 factor to the problem. 
 
 "The fact that army experience is so much at the 
 
Wotk for the Indian 287 
 
 basis of Indian education in the East is significant, for 
 it can do just as well in the West. There is a class of 
 men in the army, now that its fighting days are over, 
 who can be spared to help settle the Indian question 
 and are better than any other for the purpose; because 
 they are, and only so far as they are, educated, experi- 
 enced men of high character and capacity, they have 
 many advantages of position." 
 
 Note. — It is interesting to note that since General Armstrong's 
 death (in 1893) the experiment of employing army officers as 
 agents has been tried, but without the success which he hoped 
 for. His reason for advocating their trial was that he felt them 
 to be men of more tried character than the available civilian, but 
 the younger generation of officers, unschooled in Indian warfare, 
 proved unsatisfactory to the friends of the Indians. 
 
 The difficulties attending the constant change of 
 administration in agencies and schools under our 
 political system were very great. 
 
 "Politicians have faintly comprehended and sadly 
 muddled wise work for the Indian," he said, "and with 
 good intentions have made the best men reluctant to 
 take hold of their education. 
 
 "I find the Government schools are generally good, 
 suffering, however, from frequent change of teachers, 
 which means inexperience and occasionally worse than 
 that. The denominational schools have a marked 
 advantage in the character of their teachers and because 
 the religious element cannot be safely omitted from 
 any attempt to educate the Indian. They are also a 
 valuable stimulus to the Government schools, furnishing 
 in many cases church facilities and influences, of which 
 the latter often avail themselves, while they create 
 a moral atmosphere which is a tonic to whole com- 
 munities." 
 
288 Samuel Chapman Atmstfong 
 
 In a private letter written in 1889 he says: 
 
 "General conditions more than schools have, I think, 
 moved the Indian, but best of all, behind all and more 
 than all, missionary work has helped the Indian, and 
 only in relation with that in the West can we expect 
 much good from our eastern work." 
 
 But with all the good work that the missionary 
 schools were doing, and with all the stimulus that 
 well-managed reservation life might afford, there 
 would always be a few young men and women who 
 would profit by an eastern education: 
 
 "They will not return home scared by our great guns 
 and arsenals, but stimulated by contact with the 
 spirit that lies at the bottom of our progress — the 
 spirit of hard work. They must see civilization to 
 comprehend it."* 
 
 Acting on this belief, he sent West yearly some 
 representative deputed to collect a few young men 
 and women who gave promise of ability to act as 
 leaders and teachers; returning the best of them to 
 their homes in the course of three, four or five years, 
 acquainted with civilized ways, able to earn their 
 living and ambitious to serve their people. 
 
 In general, he says: 
 
 "The situation is far from hopeless; from my own 
 point of view it is encouraging, but it does not admit 
 of much delay in action. No honest man can touch 
 
 * " Indian Education in the East." 
 
Wofk for the Indian 289 
 
 Indian affairs at any point without at first a sense of 
 humiliation, a consciousness of defeat before he takes 
 up arms, which is by no means so illogical an experi- 
 ence as it sounds. There are no precedents; we have 
 nothing to trust to but the common sense of those with 
 whom the power lies. And yet every day sees a change 
 in the direction of development rather than of decay. 
 
 "Apply sanctified common sense to the Indian 
 problem, and you will save them in spite of the steam- 
 engine and the threats of fate." * 
 
 "To stop the issue of rations, introducing in its place 
 some reasonable system of assistance similar to that 
 already tested among the Sioux; to complete the 
 surveys of the Indian lands, through trustworthy and 
 capable men who will minimize the inevitable danger; 
 to improve and increase the facilities for education, 
 especially in industrial lines and under Christian influ- 
 ences — these are the demands which the Indian would 
 make for himself if he knew his own needs." f 
 
 With the passage of the Dawes bill granting 
 land in severalty with prospective citizenship a 
 new era for the Indian dawned. Before that time 
 General Armstrong would have had all the energies 
 of the public directed toward the formulation by 
 Congress of a definite and wise Indian policy which 
 should ultimately result in citizenship and large 
 educational measures for the Indians. The Dawes 
 bill once passed, he believed that a conscientious 
 and skilled administration of its provisions, a work 
 almost purely executive, was the end to be sought, 
 
 * " Indian Education in the East." 
 t Letter to Southern Workman. 
 
290 Samuel Chapman Atmstfong 
 
 As a permanent educational policy to be followed 
 for the benefit of the Indians, he believed that 
 normal industrial education in the East for a chosen 
 few and many agency schools under religious 
 influences in the West were the measures most 
 needed, and to the pleading of these causes he gave 
 much of the best effort of his maturer years. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 Last Years. 1893 
 
 The year 1890 was recognized by Armstrong as 
 a turning-point in his life. In his annual report 
 he speaks of the accomplishment of the main objects 
 for which he had striven for twenty years — namely, 
 the recognition of the necessity for industrial train- 
 ing for backward races and of the moral value of 
 coeducation and productive labor for the Negroes, 
 and the building up of Hampton so that it was able 
 to do its work as an " experiment station. " Hamp- 
 ton had but a small endowment, it was true, but 
 it had a large circle of faithful friends and an envi- 
 able reputation. ' ' No man ever realized his ideals 
 more fully than I have," he said. 
 
 In the fall of 1890 he was married to Miss Mary 
 Alice Ford, of Lisbon, New Hampshire, who for 
 some years had been a teacher at Hampton, an event 
 which opened again to him a possibility of home life. 
 A sense of attainment and of the honor that crowns 
 successful effort now came pleasantly to him, and was 
 augmented by a visit to his old home in the Hawaiian 
 Islands in the summer of 189 1. It was not his first 
 return home. In 1881 he had taken a trip thither 
 for rest and refreshment, and had returned, bring- 
 
 291 
 
292 Samuel Chapman Atmstrong 
 
 ing with him across the continent half a dozen sugar- 
 cane stalks and several cocoanuts, in order that his 
 little girls might taste his favorite eatables in a 
 condition approaching their natural freshness; but 
 now he went in more serious vein to deliver a speech 
 at the fiftieth anniversary of his old school, Punahou, 
 to bid farewell to his mother, who, now eighty-seven 
 years old and feeble, was living quietly at San 
 Jose, California, and to show to his daughters, who 
 accompanied him, some of the scenes and friends 
 of his youth. Nevertheless, it was a time of jollity, 
 rest and triumphal recognition of his work by his 
 contemporaries, and he returned from it in the fall 
 of 1 89 1 to take up his work with fresh vigor and his 
 new-found home life, brightened by the birth of a 
 daughter in October, with delight. 
 
 But the physical refreshment proved to be only 
 temporary; a strange fatigue began to creep over 
 him.* On November 27th, while delivering a speech 
 at Stoneham, Massachusetts, he succumbed to a 
 shock of paralysis and for several weeks lay at the 
 Parker House, Boston, very near death's door. 
 
 He was quite conscious of his danger, and may 
 sometimes have wished, as he must die at last, to 
 go quickly then, for he had always had the natural 
 desire of a strong man to die without a weakening 
 
 * This was accompanied, however, with a sort of mental stimu- 
 lation. It is related of him that only a few nights before the 
 collapse he talked with two friends in New York inore brilliantly 
 with a display of wit more pyrotechnic and an insight deeper 
 than ever before. 
 
Last Yeafs, J 893 293 
 
 of his powers — "in harness," as his own father had 
 died. Nevertheless, he determined to get well, 
 announced that what had befallen him was for the 
 best, as everything always was, and worked as vig- 
 orously to gain strength as he had worked to build 
 up Hampton. In course of time he was moved 
 back to Hampton, and there gradually grew able 
 to pull himself upstairs or to be wheeled over the 
 grounds as rapidly as he could persuade his Negro 
 attendant to push him. In these days of enforced 
 leisure his figure became a very familiar one to the 
 boys in the workshops as he rolled quickly up, 
 signalled with his cane to stop, and sat, the black 
 coat dropping over shoulders no longer able to hold 
 it squarely and black slouched hat pulled over his 
 eyes. Here he would sit cheerfully talking with 
 students and foremen many a fine forenoon. As 
 a general thing, he went to his office and assumed 
 the care of his correspondence for a part of the day, 
 sitting, when not called upon to make an effort, 
 quite silent, concentrating all his strength on this 
 his last fight — a fight not with kindly death, but 
 with powers that threatened to fail him before cer- 
 tain self-appointed tasks were done. 
 
 For a year and a half the struggle against phys- 
 ical weakness went on. In the fall of 1893 he took 
 up his routine work at the school, but the con- 
 tinuous effort proved exhausting and he was forced 
 to go South for three months, to return in the early 
 spring only slightly benefited by the trip, though a 
 
294 Samuel Chapman Atmstfong 
 
 visit to Tuskegee Institute and the birth of a son 
 during the spring made the time a memorable one. 
 
 It was the time of the rendezvous of the fleets of 
 all nations prior to the naval review of 1893 in New 
 York Harbor. He had organized, as was his wont, 
 excursions and sailing parties among them. On 
 the night before the fleets were to leave the harbor 
 he chartered a tug and sloop, invited a party of 
 friends, and made a tour of the silent fleet. They 
 stopped before each battle-ship, towering black 
 in the starlight, with only a watch pacing to and 
 fro to be seen, and as the boat drifted past the 
 singers sang the national airs of each vessel (which 
 they had learned in preparation for some such 
 occasion), followed by some of their own quaint, 
 stirring choruses. The effect was magical: from 
 bow to stern white-clad figures poured out in the 
 blaze of electric lights, and the serenaders were 
 greeted with hearty cheers and thanks. General 
 Armstrong sat silent all the while in the stem of 
 the tug, wrapped, as usual, in his cape, his snowy 
 hair gleaming, in the half light, over deep-set eyes 
 full of tears which he could not control. Time 
 was, and his spirit was as young as then, when he 
 would have been leading the songs and cheers on 
 the sloop. 
 
 The next day was fixed for the departure of the 
 ships, and from far and near the people gathered to 
 watch the spectacle. Armstrong rose at six o'clock, 
 drove several miles to Old Point Comfort, and chose 
 
Last Years. J 893 295 
 
 a seat in the top of a lighthouse, whose steep stairs 
 he climbed with laboring steps, to witness the 
 magnificent scene. It was a stinny morning in May, 
 The foreign ships, each escorted by one of our own 
 White Squadron, rounded Old Point Comfort, 
 turned and headed for the ocean, each as she passed 
 the saluting gims of Fortress Monroe playing her 
 national air, which mingled over the blue waters 
 with the strains of our own national songs played 
 by bands on shore. 
 
 That night he was stricken with symptoms which 
 could only presage death. During the intervals of 
 comparative freedom from pain he sat in his chair 
 overlooking the waters near him and the school 
 grovmds, but gazed only at the passing boats; he 
 made no inquiry concerning school matters, and 
 said decisively between his long hours of silence: 
 "My work is done. I must go." He wished and 
 prayed only to die, and on May nth his desire 
 was fulfilled. 
 
 After a military funeral, his body was laid, 
 by his own request, among those of his students, 
 Negro and Indian, who had died at the school, and 
 the spot was marked by a block of Williamstown 
 granite at the one end and Hawaiian volcano rock 
 at the other. 
 
 General Armstrong's spirit still lives in his work, 
 a spirit and a work not for his own time alone, but 
 for all time ; not for the Negro and Indian only, but 
 for races yet to be bom. 
 
296 Samtfel Chapman Afmsttong 
 
 He lived, mentally and spiritually, in a world of 
 immaterial things, though his daily contact was 
 with the most practical sides of life. All through 
 his crude youthful years he was maturing a deeper 
 conviction that spiritual facts were the only reali- 
 ties. As he grew older this deeply spiritual, almost 
 mystic tone became dominant in him, and in his 
 later years he became, as has well been said, "a 
 sort of saint." * He was drawn toward the imma- 
 terial side of everything; was interested in all forms 
 of belief which emphasized the power of mind over 
 matter; enjoyed reading Thomas a Kempis and the 
 lives of the fathers of the Church. His favorite 
 philosophers were Plato and Amiel, and among 
 his most treasured books was a copy of Amiel' s 
 Journal, which he filled with markings and often 
 read of a quiet Sunday afternoon; though this 
 philosophical tendency never disturbed his robust 
 common sense, for he never forgot that men and 
 things must be dealt with as they are, not as they 
 might be. He wrote: 
 
 "The longer I live, the less I think and fear about 
 what the world calls success; the more I tremble for 
 true success, for the perfection and beauty of the inner 
 life, for the purity and sanctity of the soul, which is as 
 a temple. As I grow older I feel the need of getting 
 at the root of the matter — of being sure of the nearness 
 of God, of being free from all the mistiness and doubts 
 and of throwing the increasing cares of life on Him." 
 
 ♦John H. Dennison in Atlantic Monthly, February, 1894. 
 
Last Years. J893 297 
 
 Prayer was his meat and drink; he spent a tenth 
 of his busiest days at prayer: 
 
 "After all, prayer is a mystery; but this we do know, 
 that looking back upon our lives and remembering 
 what we have asked for, we can say that all the real 
 good we have asked for has been granted. When 
 Christ repeated 'And whatsoever ye shall ask in 
 my name, that will I do, that the Father may be 
 glorified in the Son,' * He spoke as the holy and pure 
 One whose 'whatsoever' could not refer to all sorts 
 of things, for that would be absurd, but to the 
 whole range of heavenly gifts which He doubtless will 
 give away to those who ask aright, but in His good 
 time and in a way that we may not discern till long 
 after the gift. 
 
 "One scripture is to be interpreted by another; a 
 clear head and common sense are, I believe, the best 
 means of right study of the Bible, and hence the 
 reason why so many illiterates — even babes — speak 
 and see wondrous things, while we who are more culti- 
 vated bring our reasoning powers to bear and are 
 sadly perplexed. I think, too, that the state of the 
 heart has as much to do with getting at the more 
 intricate Bible truths as that of the head. It is true 
 there is a difficulty as to prayer; God knows and does 
 all, yet asks us to pray for what we want; there is in 
 the compound or complex action of this and the human 
 will on the wants of life an absolute mystery; I cannot 
 explain it, but elsewhere He says: 'I will give you rest.' 
 We need the spirit of little children. The moment we 
 begin to search into the mysteries of God's truths we 
 are bewildered. Yet because truth comes from God 
 we should expect not to comprehend it." 
 
 *I, John, xiv, 13. 
 
29^ Samuel Chapman Armstrong: 
 
 His thoughts were often directed toward the 
 next life: 
 
 "Body and trees decay, but each expresses a thought 
 of God that continues to be expressed in consecrated 
 forms. A large amount of the happiness of the next 
 life will, I take it, be mental, and none keener than the 
 perception of identities. Do we do justice to this 
 wonderful source of delight — I mean the noble mental 
 occupations of the next world? I look upon much 
 sincere pious writing about heaven as little more 
 reliable than 'old wives' fables.' 
 
 "I sometimes wonder how Paradise can be Paradise 
 simply because it is Paradise. It is the end of the 
 long, toilsome journey. But man was made to act, 
 not to rest. Yet here he longs for it. 'Rest' is the 
 sweetest word in our language. But there is no 
 fatigue there. 
 
 "No wonder that tireless, vigilant, splendid soldier, 
 General Stonewall Jackson, as he was dying said: 
 'Let's cross over the river and rest under the shade 
 of the trees ! ' 
 
 " But when we get there — what ? Really lying off after 
 a moral victory in this earthly strife ? No ! We will 
 soon realize that there are galleries far above us to be 
 occupied by those whose field of action is the universe 
 when they shall have served well in the heavenly hosts ; 
 a while under the trees, perhaps, and then ' Fall in for 
 Jupiter' trumpeted out by some angel, and a squadron 
 of bright spirits shall fly from the groves to some world 
 where they are needed to help others who are trying 
 in the midst of conditions like ours here to work out 
 their own salvation. 
 
 "We must keep at it forever. The world moves 
 above and below." 
 
Last Years. J 893 299 
 
 After his death the following memoranda were 
 found among his private papers : 
 
 MEMORANDA 
 
 "Now when all is bright, the family together, and 
 there is nothing to alarm and very much to be thankful 
 for, it is well to look ahead and, perhaps, to say the 
 things that I should wish known should I suddenly 
 die. 
 
 "I wish to be buried in the school graveyard, among 
 the students, where one of them would have been put 
 had he died next. 
 
 "I wish no monument or fuss whatever over my 
 grave; only a simple headstone — no text or senti- 
 ment inscribed, only my name and date. I wish the 
 simplest funeral service, without sermon or attempt at 
 oratory — a soldier's funeral. 
 
 "I hope there will be enough friends to see that the 
 work of the school shall continue. Unless some shall 
 make sacrifice for it, it cannot go on, 
 
 "A work that requires no sacrifice does not count 
 for much in fulfilling God's plans. But what is com- 
 monly called sacrifice is the best, happiest use of one's 
 self and one's resources — the best investment of time, 
 strength and means. He who makes no such sacrifice 
 is most to be pitied. He is a heathen, because he knows 
 nothing of God. 
 
 "In the school the great thing is not to quarrel; to 
 pull all together; to refrain from hasty, unwise words 
 and actions; to unselfishly and wisely seek the best 
 good of all ; and to get rid of workers whose temperaments 
 are unfortunate — whose heads are not level ; no matter 
 how much knowledge or culture they may have. Can- 
 tankerousness is worse than heterodoxy. 
 
300 Samtjel Chapman Armstfong 
 
 "I wish no effort at a biography of myself made. 
 Good friends might get up a pretty good story, but it 
 would not be the whole truth. The truth of a life 
 usually lies deep down — we hardly know ourselves — 
 God only does. I trust His mercy. The shorter 
 one's creed the better. 'Simply to Thy cross I cling' 
 is enough for me. 
 
 "I am most thankful for my parents, my Hawaiian 
 home, for war experiences, and college days at Williams, 
 and for life and work at Hampton. Hampton has 
 blessed me in so many ways; along with it have come 
 the choicest people of this country for my friends and 
 helpers, and then such a grand chance to do something 
 directly for those set free by the war, and, indirectly, 
 for those who were conquered; and Indian work has 
 been another great privilege. 
 
 "Few men have had the chance that I have had. I 
 never gave up or sacrificed anything in my life — have 
 been, seemingly, guided in everything. 
 
 "Prayer is the greatest thing in the world. It keeps 
 us near to God — my own prayer has been most weak, 
 wavering, inconstant, yet has been the best thing I 
 have ever done. I think this is universal truth — what 
 comfort is there in any but the broadest truth ? 
 
 "I am most curious to get a glimpse at the next 
 world. How will it seem ? Perfectly fair and perfectly 
 natural, no doubt. We ought not to fear death. It 
 is friendly. 
 
 "The only pain that comes at the thought of it is 
 for my true, faithful wife and blessed, dear children. 
 But they will be brave about it all and in the end 
 stronger. They are my greatest comfort. 
 
 "Hampton must not go down. See to it, you who 
 are true to the black and red children of the land and 
 to just ideas of education. 
 
Last Yeats. J893 301 
 
 "The loyalty of old soldiers and of my students has 
 been an unspeakable comfort, 
 
 "It pays to follow one's best light — to put God and 
 country first, ourselves afterward, 
 
 "Taps has just sounded. S. C. Armstrong. 
 
 "Hampton, Virginia, New Year's Eve, 1890." 
 
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